MalfLife
by Gyrotank
Summary: Part 1 of ongoing series. Author's first story. English translation of the story "Недораспад". Rescue Rangers have helped many, but this time it seems no one other than Norton Nimnul himself needs their help. And the stakes in this dangerous game are high like never before...
1. Chapter 1  Fights and Flights

**Malf-Life**

by Gyrotank

**Chapter 1**

**Fights and Flights**

1

…Never before has Dirk Suave been so close to failure.

He and Oddshoe stood at the edge of a tiny helicopter pad on the roof of a mountain fortress deep lost somewhere in the Himalayas, built by a sinister villain Doctor So-So as a secret headquarters for his operations in Asia. Right here, in this fortress near Ganges head water, he stored up a huge amount of toxic substances which he planned to pour out into the great river to poison the whole population of a nearby Nepal and India districts clean. That would allow an unopposed occupation of these territories by Chinese troops lead by Doctor's puppet, General Zhu Cheng, and in a short time the Third World War would inevitably follow. It would cause massive death and misery, but not for So-So who now possessed controlling stocks in all major weapon-building companies of the capitalist world. Nobody seemed to be able to uncover his plans, let alone ruin them. But with many dangers and adventures left behind, brave superagent Suave infiltrated the fortress and now, facing dozens of Doctor's henchmen's machine guns, was preparing to deliver the last crushing blow…

"Stop watching this stupid movie over and over, Dale!"

As if someone passed his paws over the glass, Chip's strident voice pierced through space and time and brought Dale from inhospitable Himalayas back to the Ranger HQ living room.

"What?! Stupid?! This is one of the best episodes!" exclaimed red-nosed chipmunk. "Next Agent 00 will somersault through the bullets and then, with his jetpack ready, through the rockets! It's classical!"

Dale tried hard to demonstrate these somersaults but got entangled in his own extremities and fell to the floor.

"It's not classical, it's STU-PID!" declared Chip categorically and approached the couch. "You'd better come and help me and Gadget install new 'Ranger Wing' power cells! Besides, this episode has been broadcasted for one hundred times already!"

"No, not one hundred, just twelve… twenty maybe…"

Dale scratched his head to calculate precisely.

"Twelve, twenty… Big difference! There's nothing to look at beyond the first time! And the first time too, if you ask me!"

"That's why I never ask you, pal! I find out something brand new every time!"

"Ah, yes," chuckled Chip. "I always forget that you never get anything right away!"

"What did you say?!"

Dale fell on him, and they rushed through the room like one big destructive furry ball. They threw hall tree and a couple of chairs down, flew over the couch and rammed into the TV controls. As a result, the living room became less suitable for living, and Dirk Suave gave place to TV news reader.

"…And in conclusion — scientific news. Today, after many years of extensive research, Alternative Energy Source Project was finished with astonishing success. Group of scientists lead by Professor Silverspoon from Bottlebottom Research Center managed to isolate supertransuranic element ululunium, existence of which was theoretically predicted way back in…"

"Ha-ha-ha, ululunium! Oh dear, I can't stand it…" Dale burst out laughing and forgot about his clash with Chip entirely.

"Ululunium is isolated? At last! It's great news!" Angelic voice was heard, and Gadget entered the room. Her beautiful as ever face shone even brighter, and oil spots on her forehead and cheeks not marred but harmonically added to the image, emphasizing on sky-radiant eyes and smile. The latter almost straight away gave place to evident displeasure, though.

"Golly, what a mess! You cannot live through the day without a furniture devastating fight, can you, guys?"

"He, he started this!" Dale yelled pointing at Chip, who was too busy sweeping dust off his jacket and fedora to react immediately. But when he finished and prepared to answer accordingly, it was all too late, for Gadget's anger was aimed at him now.

"How could you, Chip? You are the leader, after all! You must be above this! Not only I had to load power cell myself and if it weren't for Monty, it would have remained unplugged, but you wreaked one heck of havoc!"

"Wait, wait, it wasn't like this! I'll explain…" chattered Chip, but the moment was gone. Gadget had already found everything out, and this situation was of no interest to her any more. Ululunium news was, though, and she attentively listened to each and every word of Professor Silverspoon, head of the research project. A shortish chubby gray-haired man with thick beard, he sputtered scientific terms into Stan Blather's microphone. For Chip, Dale, bored city news reporter and a vast majority of audience his speech sounded like Pushtu. But definitely not for Gadget, who accompanied scientist's on TV screen oration with exclamation like "Certainly!", "Just like I thought!", "Pretty simple, but awfully brilliant!".

Here Dale decided to finish Chip completely. He stepped, no, swam to the inventor and, having given a courteous cough, pronounced in his most twee voice possible.

"Dear Gadget, this professor talks so excitingly, it's just breathtaking! It's a pity I don't get everything. Could you please explain, what this 'i-zo-do-be' thing means?"

Beautiful mouse giggled.

"No, silly-billy, not 'i-zo-do-be', but 'i-so-to-pe'! Let's go, I have some tables in my workshop, they'll make it clearer."

With her hand on Dale's shoulder, she led chipmunk to the door. Gadget was so excited talking about atoms, protons and stuff, she didn't notice Dale turned around and, on top of it all, pulled insulting face to completely drooped Chip.

"Well," murmured Chip, whose victory over Dale's spy fever turned out truly Pyrrhic, "this time he outgalloped me. But he'll get it hot, I'll see to it!"

He grudgely pulled the hat down over his eyes, and, firmly resolved, started bringing order to the room.

2

"Red wire in here… Green one in here… Yellow one… What's that yellow wire for, huh? Why would I need it?.. Ah, yes, this should be outer circuit. And if it is, I'll plug him here. Lock everything in… Done!"

Gadget closed engine cowling down and jumped on hangar's floor.

"And what good 'ill it do now, Gadj?" Monterrey Jack asked warily, looking at the excessively enlarged 'Ranger Wing' engines with confusion and dread.

"Oh, we'll definitely find this out! Get in, there's going to be a test flight!"

"Yeah, right, but I mean, what're all those diff'ulties fo'?" Australian said, clambering up in plane cabin. "The 'Wing' flies greatly! Most of the time, at least. When everythin' works like it should… Yikes! What did I say that for?!"

"But Monty, you can't live by yesterday's standards! With progress so inexorable, we just ought to be on its very edge! Otherwise we'll find out one day that Fat Cat is equipped way better than we are!"

"Okay, okay, I give up!" Monty raised his hands in emphatic manner. "So, what're we waitin' for?"

"For Chip and Dale, obviously! If you gonna test something, test it with full load!"

Monty swallowed nervously.

"Gadget luv, maybe we should do a couple of circles around da tree in, howdy ya say, light-weight version? Besides, ya should 'ave put remote control in the 'Wing', gyrotank style, very lon' time ago! Just for precautions, really…"

"I'll definitely think this over… Oh, guys, here you are! Come quickly, we've been long waiting for you!"

Gadget waved invitingly, and the chipmunks dashed to the plane with all their might. Chip needed to hold his customary hat and was forced to run part of the way on his three. So Dale outdistanced him slightly and jumped straight off into the co-pilot seat. But Chip pulled friend out of it and threw him to the back in order to occupy a place alongside Gadget himself.

"HEY! That's unfair! I did come first!" shouted Dale, his rage truly boundless.

"Fasten yourself, izodobe!" snarled at him Chip, then turned to Gadget and reported in completely different voice:

"Everyone's onboard, Captain!"

"Great work, navigator!" Gadget laughed and started the engines. A thundering roar was heard, and blue sparks bustled through engines' frames. Plane started trembling heavily, then suddenly bolted upwards piercing crown of the tree.

"Why-y is-s pla-ane sha-aki-ing?!" Despite sitting right next to Gadget, Chip had to shout to be heard.

"E-engi-ines a-are ga-athe-eri-ing spe-e-ed! Ho-old o-on, its ti-ime to swi-itch to-o pla-ane mo-ode!" mouse answered.

"Qui-i-icke-er, plea-ease! I-I a-am fed u-up wi-ith the-e ro-o-cke-et mo-ode!" yelled Dale clutching convulsively at the back of her seat.

Gadget merely hemmed and switched red flight mode lever into topmost position. For a brief moment "Wing" came to a standstill, waiting for engines to rotate for 90 degrees. Then she darted forward just as abruptly as before, and all the passengers were pressed in the backs of their seats.

"Oh-oh, wo-ow!" Monterrey Jack uttered looking at the kaleidoscope of city blocks rushing beneath them. "Just aw bit mo' and we'll gonna fly into space, seems to me!"

But it wasn't the case. First engines roared even louder, though it seemed nigh impossible, and began to smoke. Soon nasty metal gnashing followed, then propeller blades tore off and scattered in the air by elaborate curves. Having lost all the traction, plane kept flying forward for some time, then bowed down and started to fall with a train of thick black smoke left behind her.

"AAAAHHH!" Dale bawled and seized Monty by the shoulder.

"AAAAHHH!" Monty bawled and seized Chip by the jacket collar.

"EEEEHHH!" Zipper squeaked clamped between Monty and Dale.

"GAAADGEEET!" Chip bawled and seized inventor by her hand.

"I'm trying, I'm trying! It's good I installed additional flaps! Extending them… now!"

Gadget toggled two switches on the console, but nothing happened.

"Oh Golly! That's what that yellow wire was for!" she screamed in horror. "GUYS! Dale, Monty! You'll have to do it manually!"

"Aaah! Manually what? Aaah!"

"There should be two levers on the wings near you! Pull them, quickly!"

"You bet!" Monty said. He leant over the board, barely reached small metal handle and pulled it toward himself. Though not straight off, the lever moved, and additional flap sprang out from beneath the wing. As a result, the plane abruptly tilted to the left, and was now cork-screwing instead of falling downright.

"It's your turn, Dale! Faster!"

"O-okay, I go-ot it!" Dale murmured. He slowly unclenched his hands off the back of front seat and tried to reach the handle. But due to him being smaller than Monty and because of plane bank, he could not. Then Monty came to the rescue. Muscle mouse grabbed squealing chipmunk by his legs and lowered him to the very lever. Dale instinctively grabbed the handle, Rocky pulled him, and the lever snapped into action. The second flap stabilized "Ranger Wing" completely and the Rangers went on flying at a height of the third floor. Gadget operated the empennage expertly and managed to haul their now-glider as far as the city park, to a stone's throw from their HQ.

No sooner had the plane jumped approximately thirty feet on the grass and stopped than everybody but Gadget rushed headlong out of the plane and began to kiss the earth frantically.

"Oh Golly, what a shyness!" mouse commented on this sight. Inventor took her goggles off and adjusted disheveled hair then climbed out on the wing and started to examine the engines.

"Okay, Gadj, tell us why we are still alive, huh?" asked Monterrey while spitting out the dirt clodding his mouth.

"Just a minute!" answered Gadget as if nothing happened. She was too infatuated with her work to grasp all the profundity of Monty's irony. "Capacitors failed… Safety fuses burnt out… Insulation melted down…"

"Are blades all right? They didn't fell off, did they?" Monty continued with sarcasm and picked up Zipper who hadn't recovered from flight's peripetia yet from the ground.

"Blades… Oh, they fell off indeed… Darn, I completely forgot about blade mounts! They weren't designed for such a workload! Give or take those safety fuses… Don't worry; I can fix that in five minutes! Ten at most!"

"Eh, no offense, Gadget luv, but maybe you shouldda get back to the previous model?"

"I don't know," the beautiful mouse grew sad, "I thought our conventional speed is not sufficient anymore…"

"Gadget, by God! It is still quite enough! Be sure, you'll have plenty o' time to bring design to perfection! Dis new engines just won't be too economical until the villains grow jet turbines!"

Gadget brightened.

"You are certainly right, Monty! By that time I'll definitely come up with something new! I already have got some outlines of the full-fledged supersonic aircraft!.. But I don't have all the necessary parts to repair the engines, though…"

"Very well!" Chip took an initiative. "Then Monty, Zipper and Dale will set off for the parts, and I will help Gadget bring "Wing" back to HQ!"

"Hey, wait a second!" Dale rebelled. "Why do I have to go with Monty, and YOU — go with Gadget?"

"Um, well… Because you have attended the lection on isotopes already, but I haven't. Am I right, Gadget?"

Dale had nothing to trump with, so he just grimaced and followed Monty with great disappointment.

3

"Well, I am sure our audience came to know a lot of new and interesting facts about alternative energy sources. It remained only to wish Professor Silverspoon and his colleagues good luck and further success in the field of science…"

The Greatest Spy In The World turned the TV off and rubbed his hands anticipating the big events coming. He has been watching the Bottlebottom research for a very long time already, and now the ululunium project was finished at last. Sure, it will take years and years of research to master its properties completely and launch its full-scale production. But there were numerous clients already who would like to get hold of this unique element sample. Someone wanted to turn it into the inexhaustible power source, others — into warheads. These aspects didn't bother Spy at all. One thing he knew for sure — ululunium cost huge, unthinkable money. One milligram was worth one hundred million dollars. It's easy to calculate that under such conditions one could sell 100 milligram for 10 billion. Bottlebottom stored raw materials to produce 300 milligram. That's THIRTY BILLION! Such money was worth the risk. Spy was already going to retire, and thirty billion dollars had to become quite good lay-off pay.

"Where are those darned rats?!" He brought his fist down on the table and started walking up and down the room, his hands behind his back.

"If they don't find Nimnul in these two days, I'll have to start everything from scratch!"

The big rat wearing a splendid red suit and black wide-brimmed hat climbed up the table and stood at attention.

"My dear Francis!" Spy said in a sugary voice, his glare sinister though. "Where is Nimnul?"

Boss of spy-rats shrugged his shoulders.

"Okay, then. Where are Moe and Louie?"

Francis pointed to the entrance and shrugged his shoulders once again.

"Very good! Perfect! Great!.. IT IS INADEQUATE! GET BACK TO WORK!" Spy stroke his hand on the table just where Francis stood, but highly experienced rat shunned and retreated under the table.

"Hurry them, Francis!" Spy cried. He didn't see Francis but knew he was devouring each and every word. "We can't hold off the operation for too long! They can change access codes at any given time, and you'll have to do it all over again! You'll have to sneak back into research center to sniff everything out! IS IT CLEAR?!"

These words made usually unruffled Francis' right eyelid twitching. During their last visit to the Center personnel mistook him, Louie and Moe for runaway lab rats, and they had a fair amount of running and hiding before security lost their tracks. Withdrawal through boiler house and sewer system was ineffable all by itself…

"All right, Francis, keep on working. I know I can rely on you. But do your best to avoid repeating our microfilm affair! Don't let me down!" The Spy walked to the far end of the room.

Reminding of microfilm affair made both Francis' eyelids twitching. Most of all he wanted to refrain from repetition of that incident. Just think of it — their plans to capture thought-controlled jet tank were foiled by some gang of mice and chipmunks! It was a total failure. Thank goodness, their boss was a true master of his craft, and the prison walls didn't restrain him. Though after-pains remained…

"No, boss! That is, certainly, boss! I'll do my best, boss!" Francis murmured and ran to his group hideout to wait for Moe and Louie back from the mission. He could only hope that these duffers wouldn't bring any tails with them and get off with just a few bruises and grazes. One could never know for sure… Their base was hidden very well, though, and most of the time looked like any ordinary old warehouse, with all the observation and information gathering equipment rising from thoroughly camouflaged floor hatches for a brief time only. Never mind, soon their boss will be such a rich man, that they will never nestle in the warehouses and run through the sewers again. Life will be simply great!


	2. Chapter 2 Down to the Details

**Chapter 2**

**Down to the Details**

4

It was almost 8:00 PM when Dale, Monty and Zipper reached auto junkyard. Despite having visited basements and backyards of numerous appliance shops, they haven't found all the components Gadget asked for yet. Monty, whose sack was already nigh unliftable, started to suspect that infatuated mouse inventor sent them for something she designed herself, and which therefore didn't exist in the world outside her workshop. But in the last store they visited Dale read in the old details catalogue (which accidentally fell on him) just what they needed. It turned out that required capacitors were used in some old automobile receivers long out of production and sale. But they could quite possibly be found in the auto junkyard, and Rescue Rangers went there by passing garbage-truck.

"Well, I liked that ride!" Monty commented following truck's clearance lights disappearing in the darkness. "It surely smelled, but it was quick, don't ya think?"

Zipper nodded his approval. Zipper-green Dale didn't say anything. Chipmunk just there on a grass looking straight ahead and breathing heavily. Night air filled with gasoline and motor oil vapors from the nearby puddle seemed headily sweet compared to that of the garbage-truck.

"U-ugh!" he uttered at last. "That was one heck of a smell! Shouldn't we go back by foot, huh?"

"Oh, that wasn't smell at all! When I was sailin' down the Amazon by guano-loaded barge in the tropical heat, THAT was smell!.. Let's go!"

Monterrey Jack valiantly picked up the sack and headed for the big hole in junkyard fence. Dale followed unwillingly. All this search-and-still-not-found routine completely exhausted him. His soul longed for entertainment, and instead he had to methodically (he just hated this word!) and thoroughly (even worse!) comb numerous absolutely identical crates with boring details. He wanted an adventure. Even the smallest, even the tiniest, but adventure. Not as dangerous as the morning flight, obviously. And not as painful as with that details catalogue. But with chases, skirmishes and saving of the world. Just like Dirk Suave…

"Dale, look sharp!" Monty called day-dreaming chipmunk from above.

"Uh? What?" Dale shuddered. He gazed around in search of Monty while still moving forward and ran into the old separated bumper. Dale screamed, grabbed his nose, made three more steps to the left and finally stumbled over big rusty screw bolt.

"Watcha step, lad! It's one big minefield!" Monty shouted from the hood of a broken car. This automobile was old enough to contain the needed receiver and was worth checking.

"I got it already, thank you!" Dale answered. He stood up and looked around. In the shadows of the night the junkyard looked like some extraterrestrial jungle. And Dale liked it very much. Gigantic heavy truck's booth on top of a pyramid of flattened out cars immediately caught his attention, and chipmunk started climbing. He already saw himself sitting grandly on broad cowl panel just like an emperor observing his realms.

"Dale, I need ya help!" Monty called him from inside the ravaged car, but Dale was too carried away by his quest to hear. Having forgotten of just about everything else, he clambered faster and faster, as though someone could occupy the great throne ahead of him. Car. One more car. Fender. Roof. Second roof. Ledge. Footboard. Torn away door. Driver's seat. Dashboard. Cowl. He did it! He reached it! He is at the top of the world!

"Hurray! Hurray! I am the highest!" Dale shouted, his arms erect into the dark night sky. "I am the chief! I am the best! I am…"

Suddenly some strange device with wires protruding from all sides hit the cowl panel only inches away from the chipmunk. Dale almost fell of the truck but laid hold of the decorative trade mark statue on the edge just in time to stay there.

"Hey, who dared to disturb me, Lord of the Junkyard?" Dale yelled. He climbed back, approached the edge and looked in the direction where this strange thing which nearly killed him came from.

Wide clear area opened before his eyes, surrounded by the walls made of old autos. In the very center of the clearing stood old wheelless heavy truck with long trailer, most probably, former refrigerator. But it wasn't just another written off truck but a real house with windows cut in trailer walls and light shining from within. Truck booth served as a porch. The doors were wide opened, and a man could be seen standing on the threshold. It was a chubby short bald-headed man wearing glasses with thick lenses. His face was covered with shadows, but Dale has met this man so many times he recognized instantly despite poor lighting.

"Oh my, that's Nimnul!" Rescue Ranger exclaimed, then rushed to the opposite edge of the cowl and vociferated into the darkness below.

"MONTY! ZIPPER! OVER HERE! QUICKLY!"

Monty, who was tearing out the needed capacitor, heard the screams and unbent abruptly, bumping his head against the car body.

"Ugh, painful! What happened to him dis time? Zipper, check it out!"

The fly buzzed affirmatively and darted upwards as fast as possible. Monty, swearing in a low voice, got out of auto and followed him. Having reached the booth, he joined Dale and Zipper watching Nimnul's actions closely.

And it was quite a show! Scientist disappeared inside the trailer-house again and again. Each time he came out, he held a new strange piece of machinery, which he then sent flying high into surrounding darkness with a huge kick and awful curse.

"Darn it all!" he shouted, seeing another mechanism off. "I, Professor Norton Nimnul, the greatest scientist of the time, am forced to sit in this junkyard like some wretched rat! And to live in the old trailer! And to work with this lousy scrap! Which doesn't work at all! Nothing works at all! It's terrible, plain terrible!"

"You donna say so!" Monty said, nudging Dale. "Turns out, Gadget isn't the only one inventor with occasional black bar, huh?"

"Yeah, we've got apparent crisis of the genre!" Dale said in expert tone. He heard this phrase on some TV channel dedicated to very slow and soporific music while switching channels late in the night in search of one more horror film.

"Well, Dale lad, looks like the Professor poses any hazard for himself and his own inventions only. Let's go, I found 'ose capacitors, but I'll gonna need your help…"

Suddenly the silence of the junk was broken by a popping of an engine, and white pickup car appeared from behind the scrap heaps. It circled around the area and stopped right in front of Nimnul's hideout entrance. Tall man in white clothes holding cardboard pizza box got out of the car, looked around and knocked at the truck's door.

"Who's there bothering me at this time of night, huh?" Nimnul answered angrily opening the door.

"Your pizza, sir" delivery man answered.

"Pizza? What pizza? I didn't order any pizza!" Professor started fanning off like one crazy windmill.

"Just try it!" strange man insisted. He came right up against Norton and opened the box. Nimnul glanced inside but saw no pizza, just three big rats pointing spray can socket at him. Acute hissing was heard, and thin white cloud shrouded the Professor in. He barely managed to murmur "Help…" and, fully unconscious, collapsed on the floor.

"Wow!" Dale exclaimed. "They bound the egg-head up!"

"No, Dale, something's wrong wiz zat!" Monterrey Jack objected while twisting his moustache in thought. "Police doesn't act like dis! It's not an arrest! It's abduction!"

"So what do we do now?"

"What do you mean 'what'? We'll follow this car! Get down, quickly!"

Meanwhile the man shoved unconscious Professor into the car, pulled tarpaulin cover down and got in the cab. He didn't stop the engine, so the truck started with a jerk right away.

"How do we run them down?" Dale asked breathing heavily after speedy downhill.

"Lemme think… Gotcha! We'll intercept them at the gates. We'll get there while he'll be circlin' around the yard. Follow me!"

"And what's with details?"

"Leave them here; we'll pick them up on da way back. Details won't go anywhere. Unlike the truck!" Monty answered. He dropped his load on the ground and three Rescue Rangers rushed to the gates. They came just in time, because the abductor was already talking to a watchman.

"Don't understand what you came such a long way for at all…" old man was definitely puzzled. "Isn't it clear that no building number 20 can be here, on the junkyard?"

"It's surely clear, but I had to check it out. It's my job, you know. But now I can go home with my conscience clear and my boss happy" driver answered.

"Yeah, really. Well, have a good trip, then!"

"So long, sir!"

"Quick, Dale, he's leavin'!" called Monty.

"Hey, Monty, look!" Dale pointed at the garbage pile nearby and a pair of old roller skates at its foot.

"Good idea, friend! I'll show ya how old Jack rides! Everybody on board!" Muscle mouse jumped on the skate and took out big rope hank ending with a loop.

"And now — lasso!"

With these words he spanned the loop end up, masterly put it over the truck's rear bumper, and then tied the other end to the skate.

"Wait for me!" Dale had very little time to get on the skate when the rope unwinded and they whirled after the abductor bouncing up and down.

"Where do you think he is going?" Dale asked, trying hard and even harder to stay on the skate whose habits closely reminded those of a wild mustang.

"Somewhere out of the city. To the old warehouses, seems to me. Don't worry, Dale, I rode such things at Daytona and Indianapolis, so nothing in this world can force me off the track… track… CHE-E-E-SE-E!"

"AH! What? What cheese?!" Dale shouted in horror watching Monty's moustache sprang upright and rolled up in corkscrews. But Australian, as always in this case, saw and heard nothing anymore. He just stepped out of skate as if it was standing plain still and galloped to the half-opened doors of the warehouse they've just passed. Zipper, who was sitting on his shoulder, flied up to help Dale off the skate, but it was moving too fast, and the fly had no choice but to watch the car and the skate vanishing in the night. Without such a weighty passenger like Monty, the skate went completely out of control. The slightest road pits and bumps tossed it high up into the air, and Dale realized he wouldn't hold for too long. And it didn't take too long indeed. On the very next turning the skate skidded on the sideway for all the rope's length. And everything could have turned out all right if it weren't for a lamppost, which the rope started winding up to along with the skate and Dale being twirled in merry-go-round way. Then the rope ran out and chipmunk flew like a stone from a sling straight into the bunch of buckets piled up not too far away. Having stretched to its limits, the rope broke off and car disappeared, its passengers completely unaware of the drama left behind.

Terror stricken Zipper flew for Monty, who has already managed to break a hole in a big wooden crate containing Dutch cheese ready for transportation.

"Wow! My favorite sort!" He kept saying again and again, devouring piece by piece. No wonder he became indignant at Zipper grabbing him by his collar and dragging away.

"Hey, Zipper, what's that?! I haven't eaten such a tasty cheese for a long time!.. What 'id ya say? What's with Dale?.. DALE!!!"

Having been told of his friend's fate, Monty came to his senses immediately and followed Zipper. First he ran to the rope coiled around the lamppost, and from there — to the scattered buckets, one of which held a chipmunk-shaped dent, where they found poor Dale.

"Hmm, the lad is deep down for the count… That's all because of you, criminal! Look what you've done to my friend! It's all your work!" Monterrey Jack shouted into the darkness and shook his fist at long gone car. Zipper had his own point of view, though, and answered with angry buzz.

"You mean it's all because of me?" astonished Monty asked, and Zipper nodded angrily. "Oh, well, maybe I am slightly guilty indeed… Very slightly, really… I didn't mean anything… Dale! Dale! Boy! Please, pardon old Monty! Say somethin', please, don't be silent!"

"No, Doctor So-So! You can't stop me, superagent Dirk Suave! To arms, Oddshoe, let's get them…" Dale murmured with his eyes still shut and went back to unconsciousness.

"Thank Gawd!" Monty sighed with relief. "He raves, therefore he's all right!"

5

Chip drowsed on the sofa in front of TV. The day turned out unexpectedly hard. In the morning he helped Gadget with installation of new engines. Then came that test flight when all of them had a narrow escape. And last but definitely not least, a very long and complex procedure of getting "Wing" back to the hangar using Rangermobile, Easter Tank chassis and a bunch of lifting cranes. Just too many impressions for one day. But that's all right. He'll just rest here for a minute or two and soon will be in good shape again…

"AAAHHHH! Kidnapped! Drove away! He was abducted! Alarm!"

Dale's shouting was so sudden and loud Chip thought they were under attack. He fell head over heels from the sofa and took cover behind the TV controls ready to fight the unknown enemy back.

"What's all this noise about?" Gadget asked from living room's top tier. "Is it you, guys?"

"Certainly that's us!" Monterrey Jack spoke in a loud voice entering the room with Zipper sitting on his shoulder. "And who did you think it was, huh?"

"Was it really necessary to break in in such a way?" Chip asked crossly getting up from the floor.

"Oh, that was so… that was so…" Dale ran the living room in circles. In order to stop him Chip had to grab his collar and stir his friend up well and truly.

"Tell us plainly what happened!" he demanded.

"All right, all right! It was so… so… I climbed over the cowl, and then that thing came! Then they snatched him and took away! We went after, but then CRASH! BOOM! BANG!.."

Having understood that he couldn't get any sense out of Dale as usual, Chip made him sit down on the back of the sofa and turned to Monty.

"Could YOU please tell what happened?"

"We were in the ol' junkyard looking for capacitors. And found Professor Nimnul's hideout…"

"I found it!" Dale interrupted.

"And what is Nimnul after this time?" Chip grew very serious. One can't be too careful with Norton Nimnul, and Rescue Rangers knew it better than anyone else.

"Don't know. And it's not the point. He was abducted!"

"Who was abducted? Nimnul? By whom?"

"Maybe he was just arrested?" Gadget skidded down the spiral slide and joined them.

"No, it wasn't da police! Someone dressed like pizza delivery man sleepgassed him and shoved into the trunk!"

"That was So-So! Doctor So-So! I know it! I feel it! I, Dirk Suave, tell you!" Dale proclaimed.

"What's with him?" Chip uttered thoughtfully. "He's even more inadequate than usual, however improbable it can be!"

"Well, he just… you know…" Monty stopped short. Zipper buzzed something in his ear and ashamed Australian fell silent.

"Maybe he's got affected by gas?" Gadget asked anxiously. She approached Dale and touched his forehead. "Hey, there's one pretty large bump here!"

"Yeah, I was just goin' to tell ya," Monty continued, "he ran into some bucket with his head while we were chasing the plotters down."

"And how is the bucket? It survived, I hope?" Chip laughed.

"Not funny!" Gadget declared helping Dale up. "Come, we'll need compress applied for it to heal faster."

She led Dale to the bathroom where first-aid kit was kept. While passing Chip she gave him such a gaze as if it was him who beat Dale to his bump. Chip lost his heart completely. It was very bad day indeed. Gadget usually liked his jokes on Dale, but today she seemed to be on some other frequency, with which his jokes discorded.

"Stop being down in the dumps, ol' man!" Monty patted Chip's shoulder. "Everythin' will be alright, I tell ya! Dale really needs looking after… So, what shall we do with Nimnul?"

"I am sure we must find him! Besides, have you got all the details?" Having demanded report, Chip felt himself back on his feet.

"You're jokin', right? Of course we've got everythin'! The sack is down there, you'll need the tower crane to lift it here."

"Great! Gadget will repair the plane and tomorrow we'll set out searching!"

"Hmm, Chip, I surely expected you to say that, but… But he's our enemy, after all…"

"You're right, Monty. He's surely a sinister villain to beware. But the point is that those who abducted him turn out to be even more sinister villains. And we must stop whatever they plan!"

"That's what I call 'strategic thinking'!" Monty said with admiration.

6

When Norton Nimnul regained his consciousness, it was dark. Very dark. Completely dark. Professor tried to move but found himself being tied tightly to the chair. And then he recalled it all. The junkyard. His wrath on machinery which should have brought him wealth and power, but emitted stinky fumes and sprinkled his face with oil instead. The delivery man who turned out being anyone but delivery man…

"Hey, is anyone here?" Professor shouted into the dark. "You'd better unbind me immediately! Or I'll grow angry! Do you know who I am? I am…"

"Professor Norton Nimnul, prominent scientist and unappreciated genius in a great number of sciences. Am I right?" Ingratiating voice from the darkness interrupted him.

Professor was pleasantly embarrassed. He himself wouldn't be able to devise such a capacious and flattering characteristic. His own variants always turned out either too long and cumbersome or too incomplete. This characteristic certainly had its flaws too and needed some revision, but it was one great step forward.

"May I ask who are you?" Nimnul asked invisible interlocutor. Little by little, his eyes adjusted to the darkness and he began to discern shape of a man sitting at table in the opposite end of the room.

"My name won't tell you anything, Professor. You can all me Spy. Many people know me under this very name."

"Well, mister Spy. Wouldn't you untie me? And switch the lights on? I am feeling uneasy, you know…"

"Patience, Professor. First I would like to apologize for all these inconveniences. Trust me, I chose this manner of acquaintance for your own good. Now nobody will ever know of my visit to your place. And of our cooperation…"

"Cooperation? I don't remember having…"

"Sure. We haven't met before. But I am familiar by hearsay with you and your wonderful inventions. That's why I decided to turn to you."

"Interesting, interesting… But I don't sell my genius and my creations. Cheaply, that is. I want tremendous…"

"Fifteen billion dollars" Shadowy figure pronounced these words in just the same plain voice as everything before that, and Nimnul didn't get it straight away.

"…barrels of wealth…" he stammered trying to bear what he had just heard. "HOW MUCH?!"

"Yes, Professor. You heard it right. Fifteen billion dollars. That's your share."

"Oh, oh… You play for highest stakes, don't you? Yes, yes, sure, only the biggest player, the real dealer can have need in my genius! Yes, I should have known…"

"So, Professor. Do you agree?"

"Do I agree?! You must be joking! Certainly, YES!"

"Very well" Spy turned the table lamp on and its sudden bright light made Nimnul blink. Spy got up, approached Norton and cut the ropes at one knife stroke. "Let's get down to the details, then…"


	3. Chapter 3 Laws of Infiltration

**Chapter 3**

**Laws of Infiltration**

7

Though not as fast as Gadget dreamt, but without crashes and malfunctions, "Ranger Wing" circled in the sky above the old warehouse district.

"Yeah, well…" Chip drawled with discontent and turned away from the landscape below. "Three days of observation all for naught! Are you completely sure the pickup drove here?"

"Completely!" Monty answered. "This is the only road. He just had nowhah else to go!"

"You've already said that, Monty. Just like yesterday. And the day before." Dale said from behind the comic book. "But there is nothing going on here! Even at night! I am fed up with sleeping in the plane! I want to go home!"

"And I thought you liked adventures…" Gadget observed.

"Adventures? Of course I like adventures! But this is no adventure! Especially compared with those of Dirk Suave…"

"I'm tired of your Dirk already!" Chip attacked. Gadget's remark meant she is not as benevolent to Dale as before, and it was time to strike back.

"He is not my Dirk! He is a hero, a superagent! I wish I were him…" Dale rolled up his eyes dreamingly.

"You've already tried. Remember, what turned out of it? Your spy games almost killed us!"

Dale got mad.

"MY GAMES?! The idea was all yours! You played a joke on me! It's all because of you!"

"Was it, really?.. 'Double-O-Dale super spy at your service!' 'Excuse me, uh, mister Double-O-Dale but time out, my friend here is stuck in his costume. Can you help us out?' 'And that… w-w-was r-r-r-real m-m-microfilm?'…" Chip started acting the bygone story out and did it so fine everybody split their sides with laughter. Except Dale, of course.

"'Microfilm, microfilm…'" he mocked. "But if it weren't for me, those spies would have stolen the supertank blueprints!"

"He's right, Chip!" seconded Gadget, and Chip felt himself being thrown in cold water again. But this time he wasn't going to give up so easily.

"Big deal! He just got lucky!"

"You are right, Chip. The heroes always have luck on their side!" Dale proudly pronounced and postured very grandly (or so he thought): his right hand behind his head, left hand against the side, tongue hanging out, and eyes bulging.

"Oh, you are truly a monument!" Chip bent with laughter. This time fun was truly unanimous. Then Chip reverted to business tone.

"All right, here is the plan. We shall stay here for one more night, and if nothing has happened by tomorrow noon, we'll return to HQ. Agree?"

"Agree!" everybody answered and Gadget started landing the plane. Dale sighed and murmured "Hope it's our last night in this poky hole…"

8

After three days of laborious work Professor Nimnul finished his latest creation. Or, rather, creations. At first glance they looked like ordinary metallic boxes. But one needed only issue a radio command, and in a fracture of a second they unfolded into huge, human-size, track-mounted robots with two manipulators fully resembling human hands. These robots were supposed to help Norton grow rich. Yes, exactly him and only him. During these three days spent in the hidden lab beneath the old warehouse he found out for sure that their team consisted of him and Spy only (three trained rats can't be considered full members, you know!). It means that if he somehow gets rid of Spy, every bit of ululunium will belong to him! And he will definitely put it to the best use possible. That's why Nimnul furnished his robots with a couple of 'undocumented features'… Though Professor appreciated the opportunity to work with the best equipment available Spy gave him, he couldn't permit him to sell ululunium. As for Nimnul, it was just too petty. Fifteen billion dollars is huge money indeed, but it's nothing compared to the control of world's energy balance, of its future! He, Norton Nimnul, will launch full-scale industrial production of ululunium and very soon will be able to dictate his terms to all the countries! And all of them will have to comply, because there just wouldn't be any other options left! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!

In the morning of operation day Spy brought another scientist bound hand and foot. It was Doctor Silverspoon, head of the Ululunium Project. Spy locked him in a cell arranged beforehand, then put scientist's clothes on and made himself up as him. While chevelure and beard weren't any problem, height and constitution were harder to copy. But there was a reason why Spy was known as a true master of transformation. Slouch bearing, some extra stuffing here and there — and here is your brand new Professor Silverspoon!

"Well, my little friends," he addressed his rats-assistants, "time to work, no?"

"Certainly, sir!" Francis reported.

Louie gently plucked him by the sleeve.

"Who is it, Francis?"

"Fool! That's our boss!" Francis awarded his subordinate with a cuff.

"Is it?" Moe wondered. "I know our boss. He is completely different!"

"He is in disguise! Haven't you got that our boss can become anybody he wants yet? Idiot…"

Moe scratched his head.

"Become anybody he wants? Cool! But how can you work when you have another boss each time?"

Annoyed Francis spat and walked off, murmuring:

"Good heavens! Why must I work with these dumbsters?"

9

Strange loud noise woke Rescue Rangers up. Being definitely of machine origin, it was like nothing they have happened to hear before. Having cautiously approached the edge of the roof which they set their camp up on, the team saw white pickup truck standing near the doors of an old empty warehouse across the road, and two men near it.

"Look! That's Nimnul" Dale shouted, pointing at one of them.

"Well, Nimnul is found!" Chip observed not without satisfaction. "But who is the other one?"

"Just a minute. It's good I brought some optics along." Gadget said and placed binoculars against her eyes. Binoculars consisted of two narrow and two wide tubes joined in pairs, with narrow tubes inserted in the wide in order to move back and forth. This way one could change the distance between lenses fashioned from old human contact lenses, thus adjusting sharpness.

"Well-well, let's see…" She moved binocular pipes until the picture became clear and then exclaimed:

"Golly! That's Doctor Silverspoon himself!"

"Silverspoon? Creator of the ululunium?" Chip was puzzled. "But what business can he have with Nimnul?"

"By the way, what's making this noise, huh?" Dale asked, and the answer came without any delay. Nimnul took out some strange remote control panel out of his pocket, and four tracked robots appeared from within the warehouse. They were making the low humming which caught attention of our heroes. One by one robots approached the car, shrinked by half and disappeared behind the tarpaulin cover. When the last one went into the truck, the humming stopped. Nimnul and Silverspoon got into the car and were off.

"Quick! In no circumstances we can lose them! Rescue Rangers away!"

And the solidary team rushed to the plane.

10

Spy took out thin false beard and brown wide-brimmed hat from his suitcase and handed them to Nimnul.

"Put it on, Professor."

"What is this for?"

"Dear Norton, much more than once your photographs appeared on front pages of different newspapers accompanied by not too partial headlines…"

"You wanted to say that my recognition as a great genius…"

"You may call it as you like. But if you get recognized, they'll bust both of us. But with all this on, I'll introduce you as my colleague Doctor John Adams. Here is the ID. Don't worry, after the operation you'll never have to hide and disguise yourself again."

"Oh, yes! You are definitely right! The whole world will hear of me! I guarantee it!" Nimnul proclaimed heatedly and started to apply make-up.

After half an hour' drive white pickup turned off the highway on some minor road and soon stopped at the gates of Bottlebottom Research Center. Security guard looked into the cab, saw Professor Silverspoon and nodded his approval. When he asked for another passenger's identity, Spy vividly portrayed Professor Adams' achievements. Such man truly existed, all information about him Spy picked up from specialized periodicals. Naturally, security guards didn't read these magazines, but even if they did, they would have hardly suspected anything wrong. Adams and Nimnul really had much in common, and if one knew Adams from photos only, he would never disclose an impostor.

Everything went just as planned. Disguise did the trick, and security didn't even search the trunk. Guardsman saluted and security barrier went up. Spy drove through the complex territory and parked his car at Professor Silverspoon's personal parking place. Out of the car, he called a passing guard over and asked to arrange for some autoloader for him and his colleague to deliver their "truly invaluable for whole world's science" cargo to the freight elevator. The guard was happy to assist the world-renowned scientist, and in a few minutes everything was settled perfectly.


	4. Chapter 4 Crash Landings

**Chapter 4**

**Crash Landings**

11

"Hey, it's Bottlebottom Research Center!" Gadget said pointing at the group of white buildings below.

"This is not surprising." Chip observed. "But it's definitely strange that Silverspoon brought Nimnul and some strange robots there with him. Why would he ever do this?"

"Maybe they are just old friends?" Dale surmised. "Classmates, for example? So Silverspoon decided to arrange him some kind of a tour…"

Chip answered Dale by boxing him on the ears, and he got very angry.

"Hey, why did you do that?"

"Because you talk nonsense! Such a famous scientist as Professor Silverspoon can't have any business with Norton Nimnul at all!"

"All right, then how do YOU explain it, huh?" red-nosed chipmunk asked meticulously.

"I don't know yet. We'll examine everything on site! Land us, Gadget!"

"Okay, hold on!" Mouse pushed yoke and the "Wing" started swooping directly on the nearest building's roof.

"Um, Gadj," Monterrey Jack asked warily, "don't ya think we go down too sharply?"

"Oh sure we do not! This trajectory is optimal because it takes into account strength of wind, area of the roof and all those trees surrounding complex!"

"Well, but does it take into account all those high-voltage lines?" Australian pointed at two power transmission towers, between which they were heading right now.

"Voltage lines? No, I forgot about lines. Or, rather, I ignored their thickness in absolute values…"

"WHAT?!" other Rangers exclaimed in horror as the watched four black lines approaching rapidly.

"Don't worry, I'll fix it all…" Gadget started clicking switches amuck. This time yellow wire was plugged right where it should have, and additional flaps sprang out automatically. As a result of drastic change of traction vector the plane pranced, her wings bent dangerously upwards. At the same time Gadget extended landing bars which additionally slowed their flight. But it just wasn't enough. "Ranger Wing" landed on the voltage line causing it to sag and, having straightened up, throw the plane via steep parabola in the scientific center's direction. Gadget rapidly switched the plane into helicopter mode and applied reversion, which allowed her to land the plane relatively safely on the roof.

"Everything went quite good, no? It's good the landing bars are made of dielectric!" Inventor proclaimed gladly turning the engines off. "Though there was a brief moment when I thought the structure wouldn't stand it!"

The answer didn't follow right away because another four Rescue Rangers had to apply some force and even help themselves with their hands in order to unclench their cramped jaws.

"At dis rate I'll be hoary antiquity by the autumn. If I survive that long, that is!" Monty joked gloomily.

"It's good we didn't have time for a breakfast…" drawled Dale in faint voice. "Or we would have to wash the plane…"

"Yeah, Dale, lucky you!" Chip laughed though he was totally at one with his friend inwardly.

Having recovered completely, the team went to the ventilation grate. Monty smashed with run, and Rangers entered the tunnel dim-lit with vague red light.

12

"As you can see, Norton, everything is going on just as planned" Spy said to Nimnul when doors of freight elevator shut and no one could hear their conversation anymore. "Soon we'll see what your celebrated robots are capable of. They must not fail, Professor. I hope, it's clear, no?"

"Is it clear to me? Certainly, it's clear for me! I am not some snotty schoolboy, I am…"

"That's enough, Professor, I got it. Now stay quiet. We are almost on the spot."

In this research center Spy felt himself at home. Having been here many times in capacity of lab assistant, security guard and ventilation systems specialist he got well familiarized with facility interior. There was no activity in the wing of the building where experimental reactor was located, because due to successful outcome of the Ululunium Project this week was declared off, and there was nobody but five guards and two lab workers putting tally sheets in order. That's why Spy was so anxious about finding Nimnul as fast as possible. And that's why nobody will be able to stop them.

On the fifth and top floor Spy opened the doors to reactor facility with Silverspoon's keycard. Having seen the professor, two guards sitting at the table near the door threw the cards down and stood still. Spy smiled and jokingly shook his finger on them.

"Ah, boys, it is not worth the trouble," he said. Spy knew that Professor Silverspoon winked at guards' small misdeeds, and behaved accordingly. "Better help me and my colleague to unload these boxes off the elevator. But be very careful! It is very fragile equipment!"

Having unloaded all the robots, the deceived guards went on playing. Spy and Nimnul headed to Silverspoon's personal office. As expected it was empty, so Spy opened the ventilation hatch right away and put his rats with three gas grenades attached to their backs in there.

"Your entry, my grey friends! You know what to do!"

Francis and his team disappeared in ventilation depths. Spy locked the door from inside and took two respirators from his suitcase. He handed one to Nimnul and put the other one on himself. Though they had some time on hand before rats place their grenades in predetermined spots, but he didn't want to take any risk. His sleep gas was very strong and spread too rapidly. It's better to spend a couple of extra minutes in respirator then fail because of your own stupidity. He didn't worry for rats — this gas affected only humans. Spy checked his watch: twenty minutes have passed since their arrival. They were progressing ahead of schedule.

Five minutes later he heard something fell down in the corridor. Spy opened the door and saw a security guard lying prone on the floor. Spy ran to security room and having overstepped unconscious bodies inserted the disk with his program into the main computer. Now guards at the main post saw pre-recorded picture, and the reactor facility's security system was disabled in such a way that the main security console showed everything was perfectly in order. Spy drew out master keycard from the pocket of security chief and blocked all the elevators and stairway doors with it. Now reactor facility was surely isolated from the rest of the complex. Each block had its own ventilation and conditioning system, so there was no chance that the gas leaks into adjacent parts of research center. Nobody will know what's happening in here. Until it's way too late…

Spy cheerfully turned around on his heels and, rubbing his hands, returned to the office where Nimnul and returned rats were waiting for him. Spy waited for twenty minutes more, and then fetched some strange little device out of his pocket. He turned it on and waited for all three green lights to light up. It meant that gas has already completely dissolved and the air was again breathable. He took the respirator off and proudly proclaimed:

"All right, Norton, let's go! Great deeds are waiting for us!"

13

The Center's ventilation system was a true multi-level labyrinth with lots of dead ends ending with a blank wall at best and at the worst — with an air retracting ventilator from which one had to run away as fast as possible. Rescue Rangers had to climb over thick sheaves of cables, squeeze sidling or crawling through narrow slits, overpass with a help of old but reliable plunger arrows the yawning holes of deep, building-high shafts. Taking into account uncertain red light which sometimes didn't reveal but hid the danger, it's no wonder that it took the team more than an hour to pass through the maintenance floor. That's why when our heroes saw daylight coming through the grating, all of them felt a sense of immense relief.

Having taken rest and breath, Rangers opened the grates and saw a spacious room, most likely a laboratory with numerous tables covered with various high-tech devices. A single glance at all these riches caused Gadget's eyes get inflamed, and it resembled Monty's cheese attacks and Dale's chocolate seizures so much that her friends became truly concerned of her losing self-control and jumping headlong to study all this equipment. It was really dangerous, for someone from the staff could appear any time, which was very probable in the light of two unfinished cups of coffee standing on two desks.

"Recon it, Zipper!" Chip issued, and small fly bravely darted to execute errand. But having made just a couple of circles around the room, he rushed back and started buzzing with agitation while pointing at the floor.

"What's he saying" Chip had to turn to Monterrey, for Zipper was gabbling so rapidly only Australian with much greater experience of communications with the fly was able to understand him.

"Let's see… Robe… White… Floor… White floor? No? Wardrobe? White robe? On the floor? Okay, I gotcha… White robe on the floor, man, coffee… Man wearing white robe who drank coffee is lying on the floor?! Two of them?! Guys!" Monty looked so perturbed everybody realized something very bad had happened. "Zipper says there are two men, scientists apparently, in the room lying on the floor! Either sleeping or dead…"

Gadget laid hold of her head.

"Oh Golly! We must have come too late!"

"Calm down everyone! Don't panic!" Chip said firmly, though Monty's words made ineffaceable impression on him too. "We must carefully examine everything! Let's find out what happened to those men, and raise the alarm somehow, I guess! Zipper, find out how to give the alarm. Gadget, shoot the rope on the ceiling above the table over there."

Zipper went to further examine the room, and Gadget, having aimed carefully, shot the plunger right where Chip pointed. But she didn't take a strong air stream coming from the air-conditioner in the corner, and the arrow plunged the ceiling not directly above the table but between two of them.

"Should I shoot another?" she asked. Chip rubbed his chin pensively and answered:

"Don't bother. We'd better use our arrows sparingly; we already lost two of them irretrievably while in ventilation. We'll jump on the table from the air, just like many times before. Let's go!"

Rangers seized the rope and jumped. When they were almost over the table, they let it down and neatly landed, or, rather, tabled down. Everybody, except Dale.

The chipmunk got really unlucky. He landed right into the stain of spilled coffee and slid on it off the table. Instinctively he spread his hands in order to grip something, and they went right into the wall outlet. Current rushed, his fur stood on its end, and he himself was thrown backwards. Having collided with table's side-frame, Dale slowly slipped down to the floor. Other Rescue Rangers went down the telephone cables in a hurry and rushed to their unconscious fellow.

"Oh my Gawd, Dale!" Monterrey Jack bewailed "Do you hear us? Say somethin'!"

"What's with him, Gadget?" Chip anxiously asked blonde mouse, who inclined over Dale. He saw what happened to Dale, and he wouldn't have the heart to say some of his common stinging remarks. Moreover, if he joked now, Gadget would definitely get really angry with him, having considered him being some kind of senseless and soulless blockhead. Besides, he didn't want to joke at all, for Dale was really his best friend. To quarrel in more or less tranquil situation is one thing, but now Dale's condition wasn't something one could be envious of.

"Apparent electrical shock lesion" Gadget verified. "He is lucky it was special low-voltage laboratory outlet. He needs rest."

"But we must find out what's happening here! We can't wait till he recovers!"

"I know, Chip, but I can't do anything." inventor shrugged her shoulders helplessly. "I think if Zipper discovers how to activate the alarm systems, we'll be able to finish this case much quicker…"

But her hopes didn't happen to come true. Zipper indeed found the alarm button, but no matter how hard they pushed it by common efforts, nothing occurred. The siren didn't wail and the security guards didn't come. Peace and quiet.

"Well, everything is much more serious than we could ever imagine" Chip summed up in a grave voice when team, completely exhausted by futile attempts, dropped on the floor flat-out.

"Okay, if da guards do not come, we must go to da guards ourselves, right?" Monty asked.

"Yes, that's exactly what we'll do now."

"But what's with Dale?"

"As always. We'll leave Zipper to watch over him, and as soon as he comes to his senses, he will catch up with us."

"Well, it seems there's nothin' else we can do. So, Rescue Rangers away!" Monty exclaimed and ran out of the room, Chip and Gadget right behind him. Behind the door they found wide and lengthy corridor receding far away in both directions.

"According to the sign, the stairway door is there! Let's try to find the guards and bring them here!" Chip commanded.

"Hope they won't take us for some lab animals and lock somewhere," Monty answered.

But both at the stairway door and at the lifts cruel disenchantment waited for them.

"Everything locked from within! Nobody will get here!" Gadget sat on the floor in despair. "All the guards are fool-proofly knocked out and all the alarms are deactivated! These criminals anticipated just every single eventuality!"

"No, they didn't. They didn't anticipate us. And we'll have to act all by ourselves."

"But what should we do? Where to go?"

Chip scratched his nose intently.

"Let me think a bit… Tell me, Gadget, what can these gangsters be after in this center?"

"I think that the most precious thing here is ululunium."

"Okay! And where is it stored?"

"Emmm… It was told in the news that only relatively small quantity of ululunium has been synthesized already, but in the nearest future they planned to produce some more from the raw materials available… If I picture the isolation process right, they will need to use nuclear reactor for this, which can be done from control room only."

"That's it" Chip exclaimed. "If we find this control room, we'll find the plotters! But where is this room?"

"Wait a minute…" Gadget took the binoculars out and carefully studied the fire evacuation scheme on the opposite wall. "Now we are here, near the lifts. This means that in order to get to the control room we need to go to the right end of the corridor, then turn left, and the forth doors on the left will be the control room. Everything is plainly easy!"

"Great! What are we waiting for, then? Let's run!"


	5. Chapter 5 In Hazards Way

**Chapter 5**

**In Hazard's Way**

14

Control room looked like protuberance glassed-in from all its sides sticking out from one of the walls of spacious six-storied hall. The view from its enormous man-high windows was fascinating. In the center of the hall stood nuclear reactor, as large as a medium-sized house. Four robots worked on the ground floor loading nuclear fuel into the reactor. They've already loaded all the raw materials needed to produce three hundred milligrams of precious ululunium, and reaction started. All in all it will take nearly three hours to gather these milligrams literally atom by atom, and one hour has already passed. When everything is finished, robots will draw emerald beads out of the active zone, pack them into leaden containers and take them to the elevator, which will deliver the thirty billion-worth cargo to the top floor, right into the anxious hands of their new owners. Or, maybe, owner…

It was hot in the control room, and Spy took the wig and false beard off, for there was nobody to fool with them anyway. His accomplice sat tacitly in the corner and fanned himself with his hat. While the reaction was underway, there was no need to control the robots, and Nimnul was candidly bored. Francis' team pined from the idleness too. Everything was going on as just as planned, quietly and easily. Being very reassuring, it didn't make waiting any less burdensome though.

15

"Here! Here is the control room!" Chip said with great relief and sat to recover his breath after prolonged and rapid running.

Rescue Rangers stopped in front of the huge double-wing door. There weren't any knobs at it, and they most likely could be opened with some special electronic key only. No noises could be heard from inside, but it meant nothing at all because the door was armor-plated and shut hermetically.

"So, howda we get in there, huh?" Monterey Jack asked. "This door is too tough even for me to break down!"

"Through adjacent room, via the ventilation system" Chip sighed, for previous contacts with local ventilation made rather troublesome impression on him. "We only need to find unlocked room nearby."

Due to the majority of employees being absent today such a room wasn't easy to find. But they found it, and having moved armchair to the wall, climbed into the vent. Gadget calculated azimuth to the control room, and the trio went there. To cap their joy, the ventilation wasn't so tangled as on the maintenance floor, so our friends reached the needed grate without any special adventures, having only taken a couple of wrong turns. They started hearing some voices long before reaching the grate, and it was very encouraging, because now they knew they estimated everything right. Slowly and carefully Monty raised the grate, and Chip and Gadget peeped into the room.

"Okay, I see Nimnul… But who is the other one? And where is Professor Silverspoon?" Chip tried to shove his head further under the grate in order to observe the entire room, but suddenly Gadget stopped him by grabbing his elbow.

"Wait, Chip! Look at the console!"

Chip looked where mouse was pointing. At first he didn't notice anything strange. Just an ordinary reactor control console with numerous buttons, switches and blinking lights. But then he saw three big rats wearing hats and coats sitting in the middle of conglomeration of control rods. Their faces glum, they were watching the screen where some data was being constantly output.

"Hmm, I swear I have seen them somewhere. Long time ago, maybe…"

"Sure, Chip! Remember that microfilm affair? You recited it just yesterday!"

Now Chip recalled and understood everything.

"Of course! I should have surmised it from the very beginning!" He cried out in temper, having slipped his head back from under the grate. Monty, who was holding it with his last ounce of strength, sighed with relief and carefully put it down, and he and Gadget heeded their leader's words.

"It's those spy-rats again! And if they are here, then it's not Silverspoon! It must be masked Spy, their boss!"

"Okay." Monty said. "But where are all those robots then?"

"Next to the reactor, I think, doing all the hard labor. That's what Spy needed Nimnul for — to build them."

"I have an idea!" Gadget exclaimed gaily. "We must make our way to the reactor and disable them!"

Chip immediately joined in.

"Great idea! We'll turn them off, and these bandits will have to go for ululunium themselves. When they leave the control room, we'll reach the console and shut this reactor down!"

"Shut da reactor down?" Australian felt skeptical. "Can we? Without blowing it up, I mean…"

"Yes, we can!" Gadget answered with confidence. "At worst we'll set off the alarm. Reactor must have its own security systems. I doubt Spy and Nimnul were able to bypass all of them, too. The alarm should definitely trigger! Let's go!"

Muscle mouse crossed his arms and said in didactic tone.

"Well, well. I hope you didn't forget about the radiation, did ya? There's a reason why the plotters sent these robots in, don't ya think?"

Inventor momentarily grew sad.

"You are right, Monty. I haven't counted everything once again. I grew too infatuated…"

Her voice trembled, and sparkling tears started to her eyes. Chip put his hands on her shoulders.

"Don't worry, Gadget," he reassured, "there must be some human protection suits here somewhere, so you can make some kind of suits for us!"

Beautiful mouse brightened.

"Oh, Chip! Thanks for not losing your faith in me after all those crashes! I'll certainly do this! Or, at least, I'll try!"

She embraced the chipmunk who instantly turned beet red.

"I know, Gadget. I have never doubted you! Here is the plan. You and I go to the reactor. Monty, you stay here watching over them. If something happens, inform us, okay? Lead the way, Gadget!"

And they vanished in the tunnel. For a minute Monty stood silently looking in the surrounding darkness, then murmured pensively.

"Don't worry, I'll inform you. If I find you, of course…"

16

"What's with me? Where am I?" Dale moaned. He sat and rubbed bruised back of the head. "And where's everybody? Hey, guys? Where are you?!"

Zipper, who was drowsing on the ceiling, heard his voice and flew to him buzzing with joy.

"Oh, hello, Zipper? Where are all the others?"

From fly's hasty speech accompanied with lively gesticulation, Dale understood, that all other Rangers had been current flushed and gone forward leaving him to watch over Zipper. Dale blushed proud of having been trusted with such an awesome responsibility. Well, even Dirk Suave would have been proud!

"Well, Zipper, looks like I sat here with you too long. Let's go and help our friends! I hope it doesn't hurt them too much. Current flush is one very unpleasant thing, you know!" Chipmunk proclaimed and ran to the door. Zipper watched Dale with unconcealed surprise, twisted his finger against his temple and followed chipmunk. In the corridor Dale abruptly stopped, and Zipper, who had too little time to react properly, crashed into him, bringing him down. Dale, having gotten back up, reprimanded the fly for absent-mindedness, then looked around the corridor and whistled.

"Wow! Okay, well… And where did they go?"

Zipper shrugged his shoulders.

"Great! Not only did they manage to get a current flush, but they also got lost. Where must I search them for now, huh? All right, I'll have to do it on my own, as always! Shiver, insidious villains! Double-O-Dale, away!"

And the brave but reckless chipmunk rushed down the corridor. Having lost his faith in Dale's mental health completely, Zipper shook his head and flew on friend's tail.

17

Very soon Chip and Gadget found just what they were looking for — checkroom full of silvery protective suits and a back room nearby with all the needed instruments. Inventor, her eyes shining, became thoroughly engrossed in work right away, while Chip was standing at the door watching corridor closely. A couple of times he thought he saw Dale's red Hawaiian shirt at the far end of the corridor, but the distance was too long to bet on a certainty. The visual contact duration was also too short, no more than a second, and Dale in his current state wasn't able to move so swiftly. At least, Chip thought so.

It took Gadget almost one hour to turn to protection suits gloves into two suits of her and Chip's size. Helmets were made of the bottom parts of two retorts. Air supply was provided with a help of two small cans of pressurized air pumped over from human suits' cylinders. To disable the robots Gadget built two devices closely resembling good old Anti-carpet Electromagnet, though this time much more durable, since powerful flashlights designed specifically for work in hazardous conditions of reactor block contained all the necessary parts.

Having put their helmets on and adjusted air output, two Rescue Rangers with Anti-robot Electromagnets atilt headed to the reactor room. Doors opened automatically. Fortunately they were located on the same wall of reactor hall as control room, and Spy and Nimnul didn't learn about their opening. But the elevator descent would unlikely have gone unnoticed, so Chip and Gadget abseiled via two rope hanks found in the equipment closet and tied together.

Moving wasn't easy because suits worn right over the clothes tied-up all the movements. The Anti-robots turned out quite heavy, too, but the Rangers planned to leave them near the reactor and return with no luggage. Having reached the floor, they cautiously went towards reactor. It was impossible to spot them from the height of control room, but it was that very case when it's much better to play as safe as possible than to speed up risking ruining everything down.

Slow but steady heroic duo reached the reactor. Having looked around the corner they saw huge black robots. Two of the machines stood closer to them, the other two — a bit further away, near special trough. Four small pinball-sized balls lay in small hollows on its dark surface irradiating faint greenish light. Precious ululunium. The robots were inactive, though, probably waiting for the entire amount needed to be produced. Neither Chip nor Gadget knew how many balls must be in total, but felt instinctively they should hurry.

Because of suits being hermetic, Rescue Rangers couldn't hear one another and had to communicate with gestures. Having turned to Gadget, Chip pointed first at himself, then at the left one of the nearest robots. Robot to the right was assigned to Gadget in the same manner. Mouse nodded shortly: "Understood!" and they moved towards their targets. They didn't know whether these robots can hear or react to sounds, but one always had to expect anything from Professor Nimnul's creations. When Chip approached his robot, he moved his weapon on his back and started climbing. In order for Anti-robot to work, it must be jabbed directly into interlacing of the wires connecting the main units of the machine. It would be ideal to burn the processor unit, but the destruction of remote control block would also fit. Due to the very limited battery capacity they had to strike for sure. That's why chipmunk decided to wait for Gadget to have dealt with her adversary to find out exactly where to strike. Or, at least, where not to.

18

"Want to snatch a mouthful, Professor?" Spy asked and turned away from the flickering dance of console lights. In just half an hour the separation process will be fully completed, all systems functioned perfectly, so he allowed himself to relax a bit.

"Yes, of course! I like to have a snack when agitated, you know. It calms me down."

"This makes us even more alike!" Spy grinned pulling out two sandwiches wrapped in paper cloth and a thermos from his seemingly bottomless suitcase. "Would you like cheese or ham?"

"I think I'll take a cheese one" Nimnul answered taking one of presented rolls. No sooner had he unwrapped the cloth than the inimitable aroma enveloped him.

"Mmm, 'Munster'," Norton admired, "you've got quite a taste!"

"Thanks," his accomplice answered and poured himself a cup of coffee.

Meanwhile cheese aroma spread across the whole room and permeated into the ventilation. Monterey Jack, who had already pulled grate bars slightly apart to have a better view, was crushed with it outright.

"CHE-E-E-SE-E!" he roared and demolished the grate at full run. Literally blindfolded, lead by incomparable odour only, he stormed through the room and dug his teeth into delicious slice.

"AAA!" Nimnul screamed in surprise and dropped the sandwich. "Where did this mouse come from?!"

"Mouse?!" Spy jumped out of his armchair. "Francis! Seize it!"

Spy-rats sprang to their feet and, stumbling over and reviling one another, ran to carry out an order. Under usual circumstances Monty could have put up quite a resistance, but not this time, when all his thoughts and senses were dedicated solely to the devouring of this exquisite cheese. Rats fell on him in a crowd, and in a short time he was lying fully restrained and, as if nothing had happened, eating the cheese up without the help of extremities.

"Ha!" Francis said when dust settled and he was able to descry the captive duly. "You look like someone I've already seen…"

"Whadda you say? Stay still till I get you!"

Having finished the cheese, Monty regained his senses and now was doing his best to tear the ropes, but Moe and Louie toppled over Australian not letting him move even a bit.

"Well, well, Francis, what have we got here?" Spy bent over and, holding restrained Monty by his tail, lifted him at his eyes level. "Hmm, very interesting specimen… Now, guys, deal with it!"

"Boss! Boss!" Louie tugged at Francis' sleeve so frenzily that he almost tore it off. "Isn't he a member of the team, which beat us with that tank? This moustached thug seems badly familiar to me!"

"WHAT?! Them again? But it's only one of them! Where are all your friends?! Answer quickly!" And Francis stroke Monty a swinging blow.

"Do whatever you wanna with me, I ain't tellin' anythin'!" Monterey answered steadfastly. "Nothing will ever come of your insidious plans! We know everything! My friends will turn your pesky robots off and… Oops." Monty stumbled and almost visibly shrank in size. "That is, I wanted to say… I didn't mean…"

"Boss! Boss! They are down there!" Francis ran to the survey window and started pointing at the reactor.

"What is it, Francis? Someone is down there? Okay, let's see…"

Spy fetched small spy-glass from his suitcase and pointed it towards reactor hall. At first he didn't see anything except the robots, but, having set magnification to the maximum, discerned two small silver figures clambering up their footings. This sight horrified Spy and he yelled:

"PROFESSOR! TURN ON THE ROBOTS IMMEDIATELY! THEY MUST BE STOPPED!"

"It's okay, they must have finished everything already…" murmured totally depressed Monty to himself. But even he himself didn't believe his own words…


	6. Chapter 6 Tried and Caught

**Chapter ****6**

**Tried and Caught**

19

Chip was climbing up the robot's foothold while watching Gadget closely and trying hard to repeat her each and every move. Even in this cumbersome suit her movements were full of heavenly grace, and she looked like a small star descended from the skies and soaring higher and higher up the steep black cliffs. Chip could spend the whole eternity just sitting there and watching her, but roused and forced himself to concentrate solely on the case. But decided that sometimes he would definitely tell Gadget about these his impressions…

Mouse reached the body of the robot and closely examined it to find the most effective way to use her weapon. Eventually she made up her mind and drove the live contacts of Anti-Robot into a connector from which a thick bunch of cables stuck out. Gadget pushed the button, electric circuit shorted and a whole cascade of sparks poured from inside the machine. Something rumbled hollowly, the smoke from burnt insulation flowed and the robot tilted slightly forward. His eyes glowing with obscure yellow light died out. One down, three more to go.

Gadget showed Chip thumbs-up, and he repeated all her actions exactly. Whether he drove his weapon slightly aside or held it switched on for too long — correct answer isn't very important. The point is that the device thrust back with such a force that Chip nearly lost his balance. He had to grab the leg of disabled robot with all four of his clutches and just hang there, staring at the falling weapon with look full of terror and confusion. Seconds later with a sharp clank (chipmunk didn't hear it, though) Anti-Robot met the concrete floor, its plastic body cracking open and one of live contacts breaking off and rebounding aside.

"Looks like we'll have to get by with Gadget's 'robokiller' only," Chip thought climbing down carefully. Well, at least he had disabled one of the robots and it was good enough already. Certainly, there were two more left, but now, when they are sure that Gadget-built weapons work and know how to use them, everything will be much easier…

Having come down and stepped on the floor, Chip immediately felt some strange vibration. Can it be the reactor?! Planet-struck chipmunk turned around. No, it wasn't the reactor but two rapidly approaching tracks. Robot! But where is Gadget? Chip hid behind disabled robot and guardedly looked out from behind it. Silver figure was nowhere to be seen. What happened? Could she accidentally turn on her robot instead of disabling it? No, there it is, standing motionlessly…

Vibration continued to grow stronger and stronger, and now Chip even through the helmet was discerning that very humming they heard this morning. He glanced backwards and saw open manipulator palm rapidly scudding to him. Rescue Ranger jumped aside and robot's arm missed him. Chip rolled on the floor as fast as his bulky suit allowed him and once again hid from the revived robot behind his shut analogue. "Gadget, dear, where are you?!" he thought, and all of a sudden a terrifying guess stroke him like a lightning and made him look upwards. There, five feet above the floor, he saw motionless graceful figure in silvery suit held in a tightly clenched metallic fist.

"Gadget! No!" Chip yelled as if she could hear him. He looked around and saw her Anti-Robot. It looked completely undamaged. The robot must have caught her while on the ground and there was no height for her weapon to fall from. Chip ran towards it on all his four, but no matter how hard he tried, it could be called 'running' with great reserve only. He managed to reach the weapon before his enemy caught up with him, though. Leader of the Rangers flattened on the floor to evade the tenacious manipulator once again, then grabbed the weapon and turned his face to the enemy. He must reach its body whatever the cost and… But then Gadget can fall down! Or, even worse, robot's hand will clench to the highest degree… Okay, let's see what will happen if you hit manipulator with Anti-Robot…

Suddenly loud humming rolled on him somewhere from behind. Chip swung around and aimed his weapon at this new enemy but there was no time left to turn it on. Huge blow knocked chipmunk off his feet. Chip got up to find out that only a pitiful stump remained of his Anti-Robot. And that metallic hand is just too close… He tried to crawl aside, but it was too late. Steel fingers squeezed him tightly and lifted on the robot's head level. Chip threw the remains of his weapon directly at the robot's eye, but it was rather a gesture of despair without the faintest hope for any success. And there was no success whatsoever.

Chip turned as far as robot's capture allowed him and saw the second robot holding Gadget. There were two of them. Two remaining robots suddenly turned on. Why? Nimnul and Spy suspected something? Or maybe they noticed the sparks… Oh well, it was too late to surmise anyway.

Robots stood still for some time, then simultaneously turned around and went to the elevator. "We'll be presented on a silver platter…" Chip thought. He had to admit they had lost this round. There was no need to put the card before the horse, however. Maybe two robots aren't enough to accomplish the felonious plan, who knows? It would be great. Now, try to repair them, you, gangsters! Repair… What's with Gadget? He wished he could see her, even if for the briefest moment. But robots moved one after another, and Chip couldn't turn around this much because of the firm grip. "At least the suit stood the test. Gadget is a real genius… If only she was all right!"

Having reached the elevator the robots stood side by side, and Chip saw Gadget at last. She was okay, maybe slightly thunderstruck or squeezed a bit too strongly. When mouse caught sight of Chip, she smiled immoderately and uttered something, most likely his name. Chip settled down and waved his arm back. If she is all right, then everything is all right. They got out of much tighter spots, after all…

20

"Well-well, let's see who came to pay us a visit…"

At Nimnul's command robots put captives on the table. The moment mechanical fingers undid Chip threw his helmet away, and paying no attention to Francis' team surrounding them rushed to Gadget.

"Are you all right? Are you hurt?" he asked while assisting inventor free herself from tight suit. This sight, comparable with Venus appearing out of meerschaum, caused Louie and Moe to sink into immediate prostration, and Francis had to administer some kicks to bring them round.

"Of course! Of course!" boss of spy-rats rubbed his hands contentedly. "Our old friends! Now the fat guy won't feel so lonely anymore!"

Having understood that Francis speaks of Monty, Chip and Gadget lost their courage even more.

"But this is still not all of you, isn't it?" rat in red ingratiatingly asked, grabbing Chip by his collar and bringing chipmunk's face right up to his. "There were five of you! Where are this chipmunk-lunatic and this disgusting fly? WHERE?!"

"You know, they, I mean, he, that is… well…" Chip started to mumble but was interrupted by Gadget's loud sobbing. She stood covering her face with hands, her slender figure shaking with muted crying. Even callous Francis was indelibly impressed, while Moe and Louie were on the verge of tears themselves. Chip's heart was profusely bleeding. And when the beautiful mouse removed hands from her face and spoke, chipmunk felt he couldn't stand it and screwed up his eyes trying to cover the tears started to his eyes.

"They… They…" mouse said, these words obviously being hard for her to pronounce. "They… died… last year…"

And she covered her face again.

"How touchingly!" Despite all the acrimony, Francis' voice quavered telltalingly and he loudly cleared his throat trying to regain self-control. "Well, it serves them right! So much the worse for you! Louie, Moe! Put them to the fat one! Let them cry to the end! I'll report to boss!"

He swung around and walked to the other side of the table. In fact, Francis didn't have much to report. He just didn't want his subordinates to see how much this situation moved him, for he knew he must look forbidding stone clod with no heart and nerves for them, just like any real commander must.

"Please go ahead, ma'am!" Louie bowed to Gadget gallantly letting her go first. Moe, badly enraged with the fact that it wasn't his fortune to accompany lovely captive, violently snatched Chip by the scruff of the neck and pushed forward.

"Gee, go!"

After a short trip rats of escort brought Rescue Rangers to the big tall jar made of thick plexiglas. Its walls were blurred, but the shape of Monterey Jack sitting in the very center was clearly visible. Near the jar there were three notebooks piled up to form makeshift staircase.

"Let me please help you," Louie gently took Gadget by her elbow helping to ascend. Mouse, her face still holding expression of undisguised grief, nodded shortly her gratitude. This scene maddened Moe even further and poor Chip entrusted to him was flung at the footstep with a kick.

"Get a move on!"

"I go, I go, don't feel nerv... OUCH!" Chip received one more box in the ear.

When the procession reached the top of staircase, Moe shoved Chip to stone-drop right into the jar. Louie, for his part, carefully lowered Gadget in the hands of stepped-up Monterey and reluctantly went away, feeling sincerely sorry for not having met her under different, more favorable conditions.

No sooner had the rats left than Monty gave vent to his emotions.

"Friends! I'm so glad to see ya!.. Um, I wanna say, it's bad you got caught, but you are safe and sound, at least… Tell me you succeeded! Please, say 'yes'!"

"Sorry," Chip parted his hands, "we disabled two robots but the remaining ones got us. And how did they catch you?"

"Emm, there are some things, you know…" Australian dropped his eyes.

"Wait, you mean… You found cheese even in here?!"

"They had it with them…" Monty tried his hardest to not meet Chip's eyes.

"Okay, guys, calm down!" Gadget pronounced in strict voice finishing rubbing her face with overalls' sleeve. "This won't help anything."

"Besides, Gadget, I must say that it was a great idea about Dale and Zipper!" Rescue Rangers leader said with admiration.

"Thanks, Chip, though I must admit it was very hard for me to say that. But now these criminals won't look for them. I hope Dale will do something. The fate of ululunium and the future of all mankind rest in his hands…"

She fell abruptly silent. All three of them exchanged troubled glances and, without any agreement, ventilated the thought that simultaneously crossed their minds.

"OH, GAWD, NO!"

21

In the other end of the room Spy and Nimnul were having a loud and swearing conversation.

"How can it be, Professor! Two of your celebrated robots are destroyed! And by whom?! By some miserable rodents! How can you explain all this?!"

"Don't yell at me! You asked me to create machines able to perform dainty work in hazardous conditions, and so I did! You said nothing about the rodents! I protected my creations from radiation, and not from rodents! Even more so, from the rodents with laser weapons!"

"Laser weapons?! Are you insane?!"

"You haven't seen it?! But then I have! Through the eyes of the robots! They had laser guns! You saw rain of sparks yourself, didn't you?"

Spy became engrossed in thought. Suppose Nimnul is right and these rodents are indeed much brighter than it seems at first glance?.. Well, never mind! Ululunium production process is almost completed. Just a tad remained. The last stroke.

"Well, Professor, take the robots back to reactor. We'll try to get the better of two remaining ones."

"Okay, okay! Just get rid of those small fries! They must be dealt with accordingly!"

"Mind your tasks, Norton! I'll take care of them!"

Spy came to the table where the prison jar stood and covered it with lid.

"Francis! Take Moe and Louie and come here!"

With jar full of Rangers and a pocketful of rats Spy headed to the doors when sudden loud humming made him give a jump. He turned around thinking something was wrong with the reactor. But the humming was coming not from reactor but from headily approaching robots. Spy barely managed to leap aside when robots whirled by like the wind.

"Watch your drive, Professor!" he shouted angrily and left the room.

22

Dale got sick an tired with jogtrot of long corridors, with rows of plainly identical doors, with unhealthy and dull color of walls, floor and ceiling, with deaf silence of the building, in which, it seemed, nothing ever happened at all. If it hadn't been for Zipper's presence, chipmunk would have declared himself being insane and having waking nightmares. Finally he gave up all the heed and ran after his nose, dreaming just to break this vicious circle and find someone. No matter, friend or foe. Anybody alive…

A door slightly ajar with umbra darkness reigning beyond it caught his attention, and Dale abruptly stopped. He didn't remember having seen it before. He must have eventually gotten into previously unattended wing of the complex. Some long-awaited diversity, at last.

Dale slowly approached the door and peeked inside. There were no windows in the room, so he was able to see only things that fell into narrow field of light falling from behind the door. That is, nothing but the floor of the same color as in the corridor.

"Chip! Gadget! Monty!" Dale shouted into the dark. "Are you here?"

Neither answer nor movement. Same deaf silence, just like in all other parts of the complex.

"Oddshoe, stay here and guard the door! I'll go scouting. No darkness ever will give Double-O-Dale scare!" chipmunk proclaimed and, having cheered himself up, stepped into the void, his hands outstretched. Zipper stayed at the door in accordance with instructions. Though he didn't shared Dale's espionage enthusiasm, he couldn't deny the fact that last time Dale had stood as secret agent, luck had been on their side. Who knows, maybe this time they'll succeed, too?

Bit by bit Dale began to distinguish outlines of cans and tins. "Must be some kind of storage," he thought. The storage rooms in Dr. So-So's mountain fortress looked completely the same. And kept in those rooms were…

"Ouch!" Dale screamed having felt his hand touching something wet and sticky. Chipmunk jerked his hand back, but the feeling of moisture and tack remained. He got into some mess! If he could only tell, what mess exactly…

Rescue Ranger dashed back and shoved his palm into the ray of light. His skin was covered with something bright green. Downright like in the comics about…

"Radioactive monster!" Dale babbled and blanched with terror. Of course! He is in the center where extensive research of radioactive materials is carried out! What Gadget told him about isotopes and radiation? Naturally, he rather looked at her than fathomed her words most of time, but she definitely said something… Yes! She said that radiation is very dangerous and very perniciously (what a word!) influences living organisms. Right up to the lethal outcome… Dale almost physically felt unusual weakness spreading across his body. He started shivering. He is contaminated! It's all over. What a grim quirk of fate — death in the closet…

"Zipper! Zipper!" Dale called, walking slowly to the doors guided by light. Buzzing was heard and he saw old friend's silhouette darting to him. "No! Stop! Don't fly close to me! I caught radiation! Leave me, nothing will help me now… Please, tell the others I tried hard, but I didn't make Agent 00. Tell Chip I bequeath him my comics collection and allow him to sleep on the upper storey of our bed…"

Dale said something more, but Zipper didn't listen. Instead he flew back to the door and began searching for a switch. Chipmunk didn't notice. He was already imagining his funeral, sea of flowers, his friends standing near hermetically sealed leaden coffin and wearing silver suits, just like in the horror movie about radioactive hedgehog…

Suddenly the room grew much lighter. "Here we go…" Dale thought. "I am mutating. I start seeing in the dark as if in broad daylight. In a little time I'll grow two more legs and wings… No, not wings. Tentacles and trunk. And a fin. Shark's fin…"

He felt somebody picking at his sleeve.

"No, Zipper, please! Fly away! Stay away from me! Fly for your life! I won't ever forgive myself if you die because of my folly!" Dale shouted. Zipper didn't let him alone, though, and at long last Dale resolved to see what Zipper wanted. He turned around and saw some label right in front of him which Zipper had torn off from that very tin. It read: 'Green building paint'.

"What paint? What do you mean by pa…" he paused and looked at his hand. Then he poked it into the unfolded label, leaving green handprint on it. Now Dale got it all.

"Oh my! It's paint! Ugh, what a foul thing! Zipper, could you tell me whether there is any water here?"

Instead of answering Zipper dropped the label and ushered Dale to a bucket in the corner. Dale grabbed floor cloth handing from it, then climbed up and dipped his palm into the water. Having seen water become green and his hand revert to its normal color, chipmunk calmed down completely.

"Thanks, Zipper! And, please… Let it remain our little secret, okay? I mean, the things I talked about, you know…"

Zipper nodded accordingly.

"Great, Zipper, you are a friend indeed! Let's move out!"

And Dale cheerfully jumped on the floor and ran out of the closet. This time he got lucky and got into paint only. But who knows what they keep in other jars…

"Okay, where should I go now? Where can I find them all?" Dale muttered when he stopped at the next corridor embranchment. "Maybe, behind that big doors? I don't remember being in that room…"

Suddenly the door's halves separated with loud hissing and two giant robots emerged, causing Dale scream and hide behind the corner. When robots flashed by, Dale wiped sweat from his forehead with relief and stepped out of his hideaway. Merely to dart back in a second and from there observe the man walking out of that very doors and holding a big foggy glass jar, which definitely contained something. Or somebody…

"ZIPPER! I found them!" Dale shouted. "They are in enemy hands! What do we do now?!"

Halfway along the corridor man with a jar stopped and thought something over, than turned right and went in the opposite direction from Dale, finally disappearing beyond one of the doors. Dale ran after him and glanced into the room. He saw the man putting the jar with the rest of Rangers on the table and stationed two rats near it. One more rat, this one wearing exquisite red outfit, stayed on his palm.

"Be all your eyes on them, my little friends!" the man said and, having shaken his finger at his gray minions, went to the door. With all his might Dale ran back to his former refuge and hid behind the corner only a split second before man walked out in the corridor. Without any delays the criminal walked to the double door, opened it with a magnetic keycard hanging on his neck and disappeared inside. Door halves merged with the same hissing as before, and Dale finally had some time to catch his breath.

"Ooh, that was close…" Chipmunk sat down and went as deeply in thought as he only could. He must free his friends. But how? Two big rats guard them. If only he had his spy gadgets with him, he would have deal with them in two ticks. One stink and smoke cufflink would be enough! Or one flash from super camera! And bind them hand and foot with belt buckle! THAT would be special operation of all times!..

But without it all… What can he do?!

"Okay, let's think what Dirk Suave would do if he were in my shoes?" Dale tried to think so hardly it seemed he would inevitably get lost. Maybe he should do like in the movie "The Girl with the Silver Bazooka"? No, he needs mop, flippers and two guitars… Act as in "Lobstekitty"? Again no, 'cause he's got no alarm-clock, ink and knitted sock… One by one he mentally tried and erred all the Agent 00 movies, but each time, in order to make a film script a reality, he lacked from two to eight absolutely irreplaceable items. Well, basically, not truly irreplaceable. One could always use poisonous bullets from Vasilisa Zavalova's arsenal instead of Halloo tribe's darts, but even Dale understood that these things could hardly be found somewhere in the immediate vicinity. He had to use something really available…

But what was really available? So far he has seen only ventilation, electric outlet and paint closet…

"That's it! I should have guessed it right away!" Dale spurted up and started running so fast that he nearly collided with walls while turning. Why did he cling to Dirk Suave? He is surely a hero and a prominent agent, but he isn't the only one to emulate!.. Where is this darn closet? He couldn't have gone too far from it… If only he comes in time! Comes in time… Comes in time? No. To come in time isn't very important. The most important is NOT TO GET LOST!


	7. Chapter 7 Leaving on My Own

**Chapter ****7**

**Leaving on My Own**

23

Spy nervously wandered around the control room, time and again glancing either at his wristwatch or at Nimnul torturing remote control.

"Come on, Know-it-all! What are you dawdling over there?"

"Patience!" Nimnul angrily flashed with his glasses. "It is a very delicate work! Besides, now I have only four mechanical hands instead of eight! I didn't calculate upon such casualties!"

Spy went on striding back and forth. Nimnul didn't calculate… He himself, on the other hand, calculated everything, and knew that time was running out. Sooner or later there will be a security shift and if guards find them here…

"Professor! Is there any progress?!"

"Just a minute! I've almost finished!"

Nimnul was sweating heavily. He even bit his tongue in exertion while commanding robots to carefully place tiny ululunium balls into thick leaden sphere-shaped containers. When the last container was screwed down as tightly as possible and placed in the special case, Norton placed remote control on the table and shook his stiffened hands a couple of times.

But that wasn't all yet. Having picked remote controls again, he ordered robots to load additional uranium rods into the reactor. When reactor was fully loaded, robots turned off all available safety locks and emergency shutdown systems. Then one of them grabbed weighty case with priceless cargo, and two machines left the reactor room. Spy smiled and turned reactor on at full power. And even slightly more than that…

"So, Professor!" he said. "Looks like my plan worked pretty well, didn't it? Now we have only one thing to do — leave this complex!"

"Sure!" Nimnul's lips broke into a mischievous smile. "But wait, here are my little friends!"

At these his words the control room doors parted letting the robots in. One of them carried leaden case in its right hand, but three other metallic hands now ended not with fingers but with heavy machine-guns' barrels aimed right at Spy's chest.

"What a weird joke is that, Professor?" Spy asked, his voice ice-cold.

"Ha-ha! Do you, my dear colleague, really think I'll let you have this ululunium for 15 billion?" Nimnul was shaking with overexcitement and rejoicing. "This is the key to the future of all mankind! And it is mine! Just mine!"

"Oh, really?" Spy asked with sarcasm while imperceptibly shoving hand into his pocket and pushing a button on a hidden remote control. In a brief moment something exploded inside the robots, they broke in halves and fell on the floor forming two shapeless heaps of scrap metal.

"What?! How?! Who?!" Nimnul started clicking buttons on the now useless remote control amuck. His nasty smile vanished without a trace; feeling of triumph gave place to irrational fear. Scientist turned to Spy and bleated in a shaky voice:

"What happened? What have you…?"

"You underestimated me, Professor. You think I didn't anticipate that you would want to lay your hands on all the ululunium? I knew it from the very beginning! That's why I secretly furnished your robots with, let's say, undocumented self-destruction feature, which I just activated from my own remote control. One free of charge advice for the future — don't talk with yourself about your 'ingenious plans' aloud. Walls tend to have ears, you know." And Spy pointed to Francis peeping out of his pocket.

"However, even if you hadn't planned to get rid of me, I wouldn't have shared my money with you anyway. I needed you to build and operate these robots. Robots are of no use anymore. And so are you."

Nimnul lunged at Spy with his fists, but the latter fetched a gun from under his belt with a subtle gesture, and now it was Nimnul who stared in a barrel pointed at his face.

"Don't be fool, Norton! Sit down, quickly! Francis! Bring me the rope from my suitcase. Our dear professor has got very tired, and should have a seat for an hour or two. Rest, as the saying goes, peacefully…"

24

After three laps around the floor Dale and Zipper finally found the cherished closet. But the heavily sought can with green paint turned out although loosely, but nevertheless sealed. So two remaining Rangers had to run through the corridors once again, this time searching for something to open the can with. Eventually in one of the offices they found plastic ruler which could be easily used to hock the can lid with. As soon as Dale got out from beneath a mass of stationery fallen upon him, they rushed back only to find out that while they were absent the closet moved somewhere, so chipmunk had to start searching from scratch. By the time he ultimately succeeded he had been ready to drop from tiredness right there and now, with alternation of green and white flags the floor was covered with flashing before his eyes. But Dale remembered of his friends captured by his foes and began opening the paint can with second wind of vigor. Having shoved one end of the ruler into the chink between the can and its lid, Rescue Ranger jumped on its opposite end. First time the lid didn't move, and springy ruler flung Dale on the very top of can shelf, from where he had to jump using some rag as a primitive parachute. Second time everything worked out just fine, though chipmunk got nearly crushed by the very lid he had opened. But it missed him, and Dale climbed up the can via the ruler and dove into oily slush. Having got back on tin coast he examined himself captiously and was pleased with the result. Zipper also showed thumbs-up while holding his nose with another hand — that paint smelled too pungently.

"Hold on, guys! RadioDale will save you!" Dale shouted and ran to the control room. This time it was much easier to find because of bright green footprints marking the already visited places, so there was no need to run around in circles.

Massive double doors of control room he passed on tiptoe and devoutly praying for no one exiting out of them right then. When he entered the room where his friends were kept he saw two guardian rats sitting near it and dozing. "Great!" Dale thought. "I'll be their living nightmare!" He sneaked around the table and ascended by telephone cable. When he reached the top and headed to the jar, one of the rats loudly breathed in the air, fidgeted uneasily and finally awoke.

"Hey, Moe, wake up!" warden began to pull his fellow about.

"What do you want? What happened?" Moe asked, unwillingly opening his eyes.

"It smells very strangely, don't you think?"

Moe sniffed.

"You are right. Something definitely stinks. But I don't… AAAAA!" he shouted having seen incoming Dale.

"AAAAA!" Louie joined him. "MONSTER!!!"

"AARGH! UURGH!" Dale roared as sinister as possible trying to emulate bellowing of giraffe-mutant from the movie "Some Thing". He slowly approached rats, his hands outstretched and staring wide-eyed, with rays of light from the window reflecting on the surface of the paint covering his body and causing him to shine.

"Lo-ok, Lo-ouie! It's gre-en a-and shi-ining! It's ra-adioa-active mo-onster! We'd better RU-U-UN!!!"

Rats darted away and collided with one another. Then both of them ran in the opposite directions and, having skirted around the jar, collided at the same very place. The futility of their attempts to get away from the monster demoralized them completely. Moe and Louie screwed up their eyes so as to see no monster and blindly ran in the last known direction to the exit. They proved to be right and, having carved their way right through the door, dropped out of sight with two figured breaches left behind.

"Yes! Yes! It worked!" Dale performed some kind of war dance and ran to the jar. He leant against its side and knocked.

"Hello! Chip, Gadget, Monty! Are you here?"

Imprisoned Rescue Rangers didn't hear him, though. First, this laboratory jar had very thick sides. Second, no sooner had three captives seen strange shapeless green mug pressed against the glass then they hid at the opposite side in terror.

"I'll protect ya, guys!" Monterrey Jack said in slightly trembling but nevertheless firm voice, covering Chip and Gadget with himself.

Dale, obviously, didn't know it. He saw some degraded silhouettes only, but it was enough to make sure that his friends were still there. Now he must free them somehow… "I need to throw the jar off on the floor!" Dale comprehended and started to push it. But it was way too heavy for him.

"Help me, Zipper!" fatigued chipmunk called and the little fly joined him in pushing. Without any result, though.

"Wait!" Monty exclaimed pointing at the second blurred silhouette behind the glass. "Seems da me it's Zipper! But then dis green monstah must be…"

"DALE!" three Rangers shouted all together and ran to him. At the sight of his friends' faces close to him Dale shone and started jumping and waving hands lively and slightly absurdly.

"Yeah, that's Dale for sure," Chip said spitefully. "He needs our help! Let's push the jar from inside!"

Rescue Rangers rushed to the opposite side and started pressing against the glass hammer and tongs. Dale and Zipper did the same, and slowly the jar began moving towards the edge of the table. One inch, then another, then one more… When it dropped down, Dale nearly flew after it mechanically but held out. The jar fell on the floor with a vague tap, but didn't break and just laid there sideways.

"Oh, ill luck! It's too robust!" red-nosed (or, rather, green-nosed right now) chipmunk became upset, but seconds later the lid fell off with loud crack and Monty appeared, helping fallstruck Chip and Gadget out.

"You are free, guys! Hurray!" Dale joyfully clapped his hands. Happy Zipper flew up to Monty and sat on his shoulder. Australian patted his friend on his head.

"Haven't seen ya too long, ol' man! I missed ya, truly!"

"Good work, Dale!" Chip shouted, his hands arranged trumpet-like. "Good idea to use paint!"

"Very good, indeed! Even Chip and I were frightened!" Gadget added, and Chip blushed. He was sure that Dale didn't need to know such details. He cleared his throat nervously.

"Okay, what is this standstill for? We must stop Spy and Nimnul!"

"Wait for me!" Dale asked. "I'll be right back! Just take some contrast sprays!"

And he headed to a water cooler in the corner.

25

Having tightly tethered Nimnul to armchair Spy sealed his mouth with scotch tape and rotated him so that Professor could see the reactor beginning to quiver from overload already.

"Admire it, Norton! After all, it's your masterpiece, too!"

Spy put on the wig and false beard again, turning himself back into Professor Silverspoon. Then he unzipped unnoticeable fasteners on suitcase sides doubling its capacity, and carefully placed heavy rectangular case with ululunium in it. Suitcase grew much heavier, but this weight was very pleasant. Besides, it was nothing compared to the weight of bank notes bundle he would soon exchange this suitcase for.

"So long, Professor! It was a pleasure working with you, really!" Spy saluted twitching and mumbling Nimnul and went to the door. It remained only to pick Louie and Moe up and leave the compound. According to his calculations, reactor hull will hold for approximately one hour. This was more than enough time to leave the complex and drive off the safe distance. And the nuclear explosion will literally wipe out all the tracks of ululunium disappearance and of his presence here…

It turned out he didn't have to go for Moe and Louie too far. No sooner had the doors opened that two goggle-eyed rats sprang right on Spy's leg.

"OUCH! Careful! Are you rabid or what?" He ripped the rats brokenly clutching at his leg off and put them into the pocket where Francis sat. "You really feel when its time to abandon ship, don't you?" Spy grinned. "Well, it's even better!"

And he rapidly walked to the lifts. He had scarcely turned around the corner when Rescue Rangers arrived at the control room doors.

"How do we get there?" Dale, not yet completely dried-up after shower, asked.

"Just like last time!" Chip answered angrily, but having stumbled across Gadget's irate glance added apologetically. "Oh yes, I forgot, you weren't with us… Let's go, I'll show you."

'Wow,' Dale thought, 'Chip apologized to me! I must have scared him very badly! Or maybe this is the current flush consequence?'

Because Rescue Rangers already knew the way across ventilation, they quickly found Monterey-demolished grate.

"Golly, the Spy is gone!" Gadget exclaimed.

"At least Nimnul's here" Monty nodded at the scientist writhing in the armchair.

"And why is it shaking?" Dale asked causing everybody freeze and notice previously absent vibration.

"IT'S THE REACTOR!" Gadget pointed at the frantically blinking console. Having examined all the screens through her binoculars, she added in fear.

"GOSH! They overloaded the reactor and shut all emergency systems off! The uncontrollable chain reaction will start! Neutrons will collide with uranium nuclei and break them into new atoms and neutrons, which, colliding, will for their turn…"

"Please, Gadget, with no details!" Chip begged. "You mean that…"

"Yes, Chip. Nuclear explosion. I have read that this is rather powerful reactor. It produces almost… Sorry, I seem to be carried away again…"

"It must be stopped! How does it stop?! Stop it!!!" Dale nervously shook mouse's elbow.

"The Spy and his robots turned everything off. All protection mechanisms… Wait! One of them is unshuttable!"

"Which one?!"

"Manual emergency absorber deployment system. But in order to activate it those two levers must be lowered!"

"What are we waitin' fo'?" Monty tossed up. "We'll fall on them with our weight and…"

"I'm sorry, Monty, but wouldn't work." Gadget said it in such a cheerless and despairing voice everybody grew ice-cold. "These levers must be lowered simultaneously. Both at once."

The deathly silence established, being broken only by rhythmical tap of sweat drops falling from Australian's moustache.

"You want to say…" Chip began slowly.

"…THAT THIS IS THE END?!!" Dale finished instead of him, and having fallen on his belly started desperately threshing his fists against metallic floor of ventilation tunnel.

"Certainly, we can get back to the roof and…" Gadget murmured very quietly. Other Rangers looked at her and she cast her eyes down. "I'm sorry, guys. I know I'm talking nonsense…"

"Maybe she is right…" Monterey Jack said. "Dying to no purpose isn't too good…"

"No!" Chip clearly enunciated each and every word. "We won't go anywhere! If we withdraw now, we'll be deprived of the right to call ourselves Rescue Rangers! We won't ever forgive ourselves the deaths of hundreds and thousands men! Better die then feel remorse for the rest of your life, asking yourself again and again whether everything had been done, tried, calculated…"

"I'm with you, Chip!" Dale said rising to his feet and shaking off. He walked up to Chip and put his hand on his shoulder.

"Me too" Monty embraced them both.

"I go where you go!" Zipper buzzed doughtily and landed on his head.

"You forgot me!" Gadget ran up to them. Chip coughed a couple of times trying to sort out his thoughts and pick right words, then slowly began to speak:

"Gadget, I want to tell you… to ask you to fly away. You must save yourself. I insist on it. You still have time to escape… No-no, please, let me finish." He raised his hand forestalling the word flow ready to come from her lips. "Someone ought to stay, to tell everyone about the Spy and his plans. He can't be allowed to be left unpunished. Someone must inform the authorities. As a leader of Rescue Rangers, I entrust you with this task…" he paused, swallowing a lump in the throat. "And as a friend — I beg you. Please, do it. For all of us."

Brooks of tears were running across Gadget's cheeks. Chip lowered his head. "She is so beautiful!" he thought. "I haven't told her… I have never found time… But it's too late now… I can't tell her now, for she won't take a step…"

"You must fly away," he repeated.

"What are you talking about, Chip!" inventor shouted through tears. "I won't fly away without all of you! I won't leave you!!!"

"YOU MUST! I ORDER YOU! DO YOU HEAR? THAT'S AN ORDER!"

The beautiful mouse burst out sobbing. Chip had never yelled at her like this before. Even when her inventions didn't work as they should have or broke down jeopardizing all team members' lives. He could raise his voice. He could say something sarcastic or stinging, or just remain silent. But this…

She fell to her knees.

"DALE! MONTY! Tell him… He… He doesn't know what he's talking about… He is insane! I… I can't do it… Don't do this to me…"

Dale was crying his eyes out while wiping the face with Hawaiian shirt. Monterey Jack pulled his flight goggles over his eyes to hide tears. Zipper wept hidden behind his friend's broad back. Chip looked sideways and griped jaws to the highest degree, trying his hardest not to sob aloud through the entire complex. Watching Gadget suffering was miles beyond his capacity. When she pretended to mourn over Dale and Zipper he nearly had a stroke. And now…

"Guys, wait!"

Gadget raised her head and looked at her friends with eyes full of cold determination. This transition from despair to serenity was so drastic that Chip, who had already bidden farewell to her and to life as a whole, felt his jaw dropping on the floor. Once again he made sure that even after so many years of acquaintance he didn't know her at all. Turns out that, while sobbing and begging of her friends, she simultaneously went on searching for a way out of this seemingly hopeless situation. And, looks like, she found it…

"I know who will help us!"

"WHO?!" everybody exclaimed with one accord.

"He!" and mouse pointed at constrained Nimnul.

"WHAT?!" Monty's indignation was boundless. "No way! We've already helped him to return to his normal look, and what next? He caged us!"

"Yeah, right! He can't be trusted! He'll try to finish us off at the very first opportunity!" Dale bristled up.

"Besides," Chip said prudently, "he doesn't understand our language anymore! We won't be able to even talk to him!"

"Oh sure we will! Let's go!"

And Gadget emphatically headed towards Nimnul while rubbing her face with the sleeves. Other Rangers exchanged glances and followed her example.


	8. Chapter 8 Delicate Approach

**Chapter ****8**

**Delicate Approach**

26

When Spy stepped out of elevator into the ground floor hall, he almost immediately ran across a group of five foreign scientists accompanied by supervisor of one of the projects adjoining Professor Silverspoon's one. The man was very glad to introduce his guests to now world-renowned scientist, and Spy had to answer their numerous questions. Now all the time spent in the libraries reading all Silverspoon's works paid off handsomely. Otherwise he would have certainly been disclosed during this, the very last stage of operation. After half an hour long conversation he apologized for having too little time to speak with his foreign colleagues more, but expressed hope that they would have plenty of time to discuss everything during next week's international conference. Having said goodbye, Spy headed to the front doors in a hurry. He still had enough time, but he wanted to leave the territory before the reactor vibration became widely perceptible and alarm was given. It's much easier to get ululunium out now, while everything is quiet…

27

Having seen Rescue Rangers gathered in front of him Nimnul started twitching and chewing scotch tape with twice as much efforts. And when Zipper ripped the tape along with false beard off his face, Professor burst out into swearwords.

"You again?! I knew it was you! My robots! You'll pay for this!"

"Told you!" Chip said to Gadget. "He is insane! Everything is going to blow, but he is concerned with his robots! How can we ever persuade him?"

"I know how," mouse smiled significantly and pointed at the nearest computer terminal. There was a command line cursor blinking on a screen invitingly, ready and waiting for input. Gadget nimbly allotted keyboard keys to her friends and started dictating message for Nimnul. Professor froze in astonishment and started reading avidly.

'_dear nimnul please help us stop the reactor and save people'_

"What?! You want me, evil genius, to help you saving people? You must have gone mad!" Nimnul shouted with laughter.

"I'll show him right now!" Monterrey Jack rolled up his sleeves and stepped forward, but Gadget stopped him.

"Everything's all right, Monty! Please, go on writing!"

'_nimnul if reactor explodes you will die'_

He stopped laughing but, after some thoughts, answered ardently.

"I don't care! I don't fear death! I'm glad that these miserable ignoramuses and hypocrites will take in full!"

His reaction discouraged everyone but Gadget. She was prepared even for this.

'_if reactor explodes it will mean that spy is the number one'_

"WHAT?!" Nimnul shouted. "Why is that?! I demand explanations!"

'_spy will be the best because his plan worked out perfectly reactor exploded you died he went away with a glut of wealth for the rest of his life he will laugh remembering how he twisted you round his finger…'_

"Gadget, please, slower! We can't keep pace with you!" exhausted Rangers implored.

"Sorry, folks, I just got so carried away with this…" the mouse smiled guiltily. But they have written quite enough already. Nimnul turned purple with rage, his eyes became bloodshot. Words on the screen hit his heel of Achilles — pride and egoism.

"Quickly! Quickly! Don't stand and stare! Free me! We must stop this thing!"

"Our lass is real genius!" Monty nudged Chip.

"Oh, yeah! The most beautiful genius in the world!" Chip agreed. "Well, let's free Professor and put an end to it!"

Having coordinated their actions with Nimnul via terminal, Rescue Rangers set about the reactor shutdown procedure. Emergency shutdown levers were very tight and the only way to move one of them down was to thrust upon it with all their weight at once. To do this, Gadget designed and built some kind of ballista. Long piece of lightweight and flexible rope, which Nimnul had been bound with before, its first end attached to the table leg and the other — to console mount, served as ballista's bow-string. The strainer consisted of smaller piece of rope bound to the armchair and thrown in a pulley-like way over one of the destroyed robots. Its other end was held by Rangers, who hauled their armchair up to the robot, straining the bow-string. When it stretched tautly enough, they released the rope and armchair dashed off towards the lever. Approximately three-quarters-way through the room it came to rest against the purposely moved there small locker, flipping all the Ranger team into the air and right down on the lever. No sooner had all of them landed (or, rather, levered) than Nimnul pulled his lever down. For a brief but seemingly endless moment nothing was happening, but then both levers moved into the downmost position. Message reading "Manual shutdown! Please stand by…" appeared on the screens. The sound of control rods falling into the active zone, muted by thick window glass, was heard from the reactor room, and vibration started subsiding. Hands of reactor temperature indicators stopped only a couple of points from meltdown temperature and, with a shake, stated crawling back reluctantly.

"Hurray!" Rescue Rangers jumped in rejoice. Even Nimnul upraised his hands triumphantly.

"I'll show you what's what, Spy!" he shook his fist at distant foe.

Rescue Rangers gathered at the terminal and started jumptyping once again.

'_now we must pursue and stop spy'_

"Right!" Nimnul exclaimed but immediately wilted and asked:

"It's all correct, certainly, but how can I leave? Spy locked the doors; they can't be opened without keycard."

"Yeah, Gadj, he is right. We can exit through da vent, fo' sure, but Nimnul wouldn't squeeze through there!" Monty pointed pensively.

"Lemme think… Oh! I got it! Write…"

'_nimnul you are genius…'_

"I won't be writing THIS!" Dale assumed an offended air, but Chip cuffed him on the nape and he, albeit without any enthusiasm, went on jumping on the keys.

'_nimnul you are genius you will certainly devise something you built these marvelous robots so security lock can not be a problem for you'_

"Oh, really! How could I have forgotten?! Nothing can stop me, Professor Norton Nimnul the Ingenious!" scientist shouted and rushed to the doors followed by Rescue Rangers. Nimnul quickly unscrewed the cover of electronic lock and studied the wires. After a couple of hems he took robot remote control out from his pocket and dismantled it. Then he inserted some boards and wires into the lock, pressed the needed buttons and doors opened.

"Woilah!" Nimnul proclaimed and, having bent down, said to Rescue Rangers:

"It's a pity I don't have much time to deal with you… Don't worry, we'll surely meet again! But right now I'm very sorry; I have to catch up with one old friend!"

And mad scientist ran away, laughing boisterously.

"Maybe we shouldn't have… emm… unleashed him?" Dale asked when the team walked out into the corridor.

"However that may be, he helped us and saved thousands of people, even if reasoning from his own vile considerations!" Gadget joked. Her sorrow vanished without a trace, and the mouse looked as bright and splendid as always. Looking at her it was impossible to imagine that only some fifteen minutes ago she was in a prehysterical mood. Sleeves of her azure overalls were dark-blue and soggy now though, but these details could easily be ignored in absolute values…

"And you can surely find a way to man's heart!" Monterey Jack remarked. Gadget giggled, Chip blushed, and Dale started whistling something. Monty went on as if nothing had happened:

"How do we get back to da plane? Vents again?"

"No," Gadget answered, "I think I can suggest faster and safer way out. Don't fall behind!"

28

Having opened the elevator the same way as control room, Nimnul pushed the ground floor button up to the stop. He didn't count on finding Spy in the compound, but he was pretty sure he would make his life a lot harder. Professor remembered pickup's license number and a route from Bottlebottom to Spy's hideout very well. We shall see who the real super villain here is!

But the reality exceeded all expectations. When Nimnul walked out into the hall he saw the Spy himself heading to the exit.

"Stop this man!" he yelled, pointing at pseudo-Silverspoon. "He is a criminal!"

Everybody in the hall turned around and… lunged at Norton.

"It's Norton Nimnul!" the project overseer shouted. "Get him!"

Only then Nimnul realized that he wore neither false beard nor his hat, and so he ran to the exit. Security guards took out pistols and aimed them at Professor, but Nimnul didn't even notice it and continued running while dodging from the hands trying to catch him.

"It is the terrorist!" he shouted stifling with scamper. Nimnul used to entrust all physical work to his machines, but now, when it mattered like never before, had to act on his own. But after all these years spent in the laboratories he was completely out of form and was already suffocating, but continued to run and shout.

"He stole ululunium! Stop him!"

"Poor Nimnul," tall black-haired scientist said to his too early turned grey colleague in a low voice, "he went completely balmy. He showed such great promises! Lucid mind! It's so sad to have lost such a man…"

Spy has almost reached the front doors when the noise behind him caught his attention. He turned around, saw Nimnul and flinched. How did this madman free himself? If it hadn't been for that darned project overseer, he would have left the complex long time ago… Oh, well, situation is still under his control. He just needs to stay calm, and everything will be all right. Self-restrain is paramount.

"What is this madman doing here?!" Spy asked the security guard at the doors crossly. "How did he get in here?! Who let him in?!"

"Don't know, sir. But don't worry, we'll neutralize him!"

The guard, his hands spread out, ran towards Nimnul, who had already become completely fatigued. Officer grabbed Professor's sleeve and sharply tugged to himself, causing scientist to out of balance and falling to his knees. The other guards arrived and got him down. The scientist struggled in desperation, shouting heart-rendingly:

"Let me go! You got the wrong man, idiots! Get HIM! Get Silverspoon!"

Chief of security appeared, and Spy asked him:

"Who is that man?"

"It's Norton Nimnul, Doctor. I don't know how he got in here, but we'll find this out very soon, I promise!"

"He stole ululunium!" Nimnul went on shouting.

"WHAT?!" Spy asked with masterfully imitated indignation. "How could you say that?! It's a work of all my life!" he turned to the guards. "This man is impostor! You should arrest him and call the police!"

"Certainly, Professor. Let me accompany you to the car. This man is obviously dangerous. Who knows, maybe he has accomplices with him."

"Thank you. It is not worth the trouble, but if you insist…"

"Lock him up and keep your eyes skinned till police arrives!" Chief of security ordered and left the building along with Spy.

"Stop! Let me go! Listen to me!" Nimnul yelled, but nobody was paying attention. One of the guards took a pair of handcuffs off his belt. Having seen steel bracers Nimnul felt a second wind. He abruptly shifted and dug his teeth into one of the hands holding him. Bitten guard screamed with pain and unclenched his fist. Scientist dashed forward. The crack of torn fabric was heard and Nimnul ran to the doors, wisps of his robe left in the hands of bewildered guards. One of them pressed the alarm button. The siren howled nastily and the armoured grate started going down from the ceiling, blocking the doors. Nimnul ran his fastest and then, having dived on the floor, slid under the grate on his belly. The grate closed cutting all the pursuers from him, and Nimnul felt himself victorious and free. But no sooner had he stepped out of the front doors than clicks of breechblocks were heard, and Norton saw barrels of assault rifles aimed at him. The soldiers guarding the perimeter came.

"Hands up!" one of them ordered. "Kneel down slowly! Otherwise we'll shoot! I'll count down to three! One…"


	9. Chapter 9 Sweet Times Revenge Times

**Chapter ****9**

**Sweet Times, Revenge Times**

29

"Hey look, our egg-head has got a problem!" Dale said, pointing his finger at the drama taking place below. Doing this nearly caused him to fall down from the rope fluttering six floors above the ground, and he twitched like a leaf in the wind, trying to lay hold as firmly as he could.

In theory, the method of getting on the roof developed by Gadget was much faster and safer then a trip through ventilation. Using the details found in the previously visited back room and extracted from destroyed robots she built rather sophisticated device, some mishmash of screw-jack, force-pump and telescopic antenna. This mechanism allowed her to open a window in the corner room. The rest was easy — just shoot the penultimate rope plunger arrow at the fire-escape ladder and the sky bridge is completed! But Gadget didn't take into account strong wind, periodically appearing at this altitude. She, Chip and Monterey Jack reached ladder with no problems, but Dale's trip coincided with next wind blast, and poor fellow already halfway through the rope was thrown away almost to the very beginning. It was exactly because of this that he looked down and saw the scientist surrounded by soldiers, though.

"As one would expect, they didn't believe him! Too bad reputation amassed. Image, ya know!" Monterey Jack stated authoritatively.

Gadget fetched binoculars to observe the current events closer. She saw knelt-down Nimnul, who shouted something to the soldiers surrounding him and pointed with his hand somewhere behind their backs. Mouse looked in that direction and nearly dropped her optics in surprise.

"Golly! That's Spy! He's leaving!"

"He's still here?!" Chip took binoculars away from her and watched himself. "And escorted by security chief, no less! Barefaced impudence, I would say! We must do something immediately!"

"Me! Pull me out! I'm here!" Dale yelled from below, but he was already being assisted by Zipper, so Chip didn't have time for him right now,

"But what can we do?" bewildered Monty asked. "If even security chief got deceived by his disguise…"

"DISGUISE!" having completely forgotten of the binoculars held in hand, Chip slapped himself on the forehead and winced with pain. "Ouch! Okay, well, I know what to do! Gadget — to the plane! Monty, you and Zipper stay here and help Dale out. We'll be right back!"

And he ran after blue overalls rapidly moving away. Gadget was already starting engines up when he climbed into the cockpit.

"Where do we go, Chip?"

"Head for the Spy!" chipmunk answered while loading the tail gun with rope arrow.

"Got it!"

'Ranger Wing' took off, flew over the roof and dove steeply.

"Fly as close to him as you can!" Chip shouted.

"Okay! If you are going to do what I think you are going to do, you should aim slightly up and right!"

"Thank you!"

Some fifteen feet above the two men standing near the pickup truck plane changed to helicopter mode and hovered. Chip aimed just like Gadget taught him and shot. Clap and humming of uncoiling rope followed. Having clutched convulsively into the gun handles, leader of Rescue Rangers watched the flying arrow with strained attention. Come on, come on! Just a little more…

GOTCHA! The arrow hit right in the middle of Spy's sumptuous false chevelure.

"Full upwards, Gadget!" Chip commanded jumping in the seat near her. The engines switched to maximum power roared and 'Wing' rushed in the sky stretching the rope. In a blink of an eye criminal's wig flew up, leaving 'Professor Silverspoon' flapping perplexedly on the newly appeared bald patch on his head.

"Darn! What a heck is this?!" Spy shouted in an unusual voice. As a matter of fact, this voice was familiar to him being his own one. But Silverspoon's it wasn't, and chief of security froze in place, his eyes wide open. He reached for holstered gun, but his hands were trembling and he accidentally shot at the ground. The bullet ricocheted from asphalt and hit Spy's briefcase. The villain dropped it down, and it opened upon impact.

"No! My ululunium! My billions!" Spy dashed to the suitcase and began to cram the leaden case back into it. Having packed it, he picked it up with a breath of relief… and found himself face to face with soldiers came running at the sound of gunfire. And with their automatic weapons, too.

"See! I told you! He is a criminal!" Nimnul blurted out shaking with his chained hands. "It's terrorist! He wanted to steal ululunium and blow up the reactor! But I shut it down! I, Professor Norton Nimnul!"

Spy didn't answer. Instead he looked up in the sky and burst into hysterical laughter at the sight of a small plane flying away with his wig.

"These rodents, really?… Rodents… Again… Me…"

"Take him away!" Chief of security ordered. Soldiers took Spy's suitcase and weapon away, handcuffed him and leaded away.

"I have to apologize to you, Professor Nimnul" he pronounced solemnly, unlocking Norton's bracers. "You are a hero! Let me kindly thank you on behalf of all Bottlebottom complex personnel… no, on behalf of all humanity! You didn't let the fearful plans be realized and saved us all from nuclear disaster and the whole world — from becoming a hostage of a maniac! I will personally intercede for you to be awarded with the National Security Medal! Come with me! Everybody must know about your heroic deed!"

He firmly shook hands with Professor and leaded him to the complex.

"Oh, great…" Nimnul murmured, passing people praising him. "I was thanked on behalf of all humanity. I will be recommended for a decoration… I! Norton Nimnul, evil genius! What a shame, what a shame…" he covered his face to see no cheerful faces around.

"I knew he's a fine fellow! I have always said so!" tall black-haired scientist told his too early turned grey colleague in a happy voice.

30

No sooner had 'Ranger Wing' landed on the roof than Monty came running to it beaming with joy.

"Chippah, lad, great shot! You truly scalped him, ya know! A sure trophy to hang over the fireplace!"

"We have no fireplace" flattered Chip answered. "Nevertheless, thanks! But I must say I wouldn't have done anything without such a great pilot!"

"You are welcome, Chip," Gadget blinked ablush and Chip's heart started beating at least twice as fast.

"Besides," inventor added, looking around, "where's Dale. You took him off the rope, didn't you?"

"Whadda you mean by that? Of course we took him off! But he immediately ran away. Said he's got some surprise for all of us…"

"I hope we won't need to look for him through the entire complex…" Chip started angrily. But he didn't finish the phrase, for suddenly some orange beast jumped out from behind the ventilation cube and went to him roaring wildly.

"Yikes! Who is this? What is this?" Monty tremored.

"I know 'what' it is!" Chip said through set teeth and grimaced. He quickly approached the beast and bonked it.

"OUCH!" beast exclaimed in surprise and sat on the tar covering the roof completely startled.

"Stop playing fool, Dale" Chip uttered strictly.

"I am no Dale, I am radioactive monster!" beast said in Dale's voice and stammered. "Erm… I wanted to say… ARGH!"

"You got a sunstroke, Dale!" Rescue Rangers leader announced like a diagnosing physician. He saw Gadget, Monty and Zipper joining them and realized it was an excellent opportunity for glorious revenge.

"Remember, Dale" he went on finishing prostrate 'beast', "radioactive monsters exist in comic books only! Go wash yourself! I won't let you on the plane in all this!"

"Isn't it scary at all, Chip?" completely dispirited Dale mumbled.

"No, Dale, not in the least. You have already been a monster today. Next time think out something more original."

"I thought out original" painted chipmunk objected. "I used orange paint this time!"

He was answered by loud breaking laughter. Dale sat there for some time watching his laughing friends, but then smiled indulgently. He mustn't be offended by their behavior at all. Current flush can have even more drastic consequences, you know…

**THE END**


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